Big US Election goof-up: Some in New York get absentee ballots with wrong return address

Mail-in voting has gotten off to a rocky start in New York City, where election officials sent out a large number of absentee ballots with wrong names and dresses on return envelopes.

faulty ballots were sent to an unkwn number of voters in Brooklyn and could result in ballots being voided if voters sign ir own name on return envelopes bearing different names. More than 140,000 ballots have alrey been sent out so far across borough. It was unclear how many people got wrong envelopes.

New York City Board of Elections blamed problem on vendor hired to print and mail ballots for voters in Brooklyn and Queens.

“We are determining how many voters have been affected but we can assure that vendor will dress this problem in future mailings, and make sure people who received erroneous envelopes receive new ones,” Board of Elections Executive Sirector Michael J. Ryan said in a written statement.

He said proper ballots and envelopes would get to voters before v. 3 election. Ryan didn't immediately describe how that would happen, how much it would cost or what would happen if voters h alrey mailed ir completed ballot back in provided envelopes.

A mess seeking comment was sent to printer city blamed for error, Phoenix Graphics.

Meanwhile, city elections board was also dealing with confusion regarding ar printing amaly on absentee ballots.

Ordinarily, absentee ballots in city are sent out with a heing identifying m as an “Official Absentee / Military Ballot.” This year, slash between “absentee” and “military” was left out, leing some voters to believe y h mistakenly been mailed a ballot for use only by members of military.

board tweeted that ballot was still good for use by any registered voter.

pair of mishaps took place despite intense scrutiny of mail-in voting nationwide. And it comes on heels of a rocky spring primary in New York in which election boards struggled to handle a record amount of voting by mail.

Because of coronavirus pandemic, more than 400,000 New York City residents voted by absentee ballot in during primary, a figure that was 10 times number of absentee ballots cast in 2016 primary.

Many voters complained that ir absentee ballots didn't arrive in time for primary. And thousands of ballots cast by mail were later disqualified for mir technical errors, including voters forgetting to sign ir name, or U.S. Postal Service failing to put a postmark on ballot indicating when it was sent.

Im Credit: Republic World

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