In New York, absentee voters must put their complete absentee ballots in a return envelope, known as a “oath” envelope, which includes the voter’s name, address, and voter ID. The sworn envelope will then be placed inside another envelope and returned to local election officials.
Voters affected by the latest mistake received an affidavit with the personal information of another voter instead, raising questions about whether the vote would be counted in the fall election. The debate over the safety of the mail-in poll – and the frequent misinformation – has come amid widespread debate.
A spokeswoman for the board, Valerie Vazquez-Diaz, told CNN that 99,477 voters were affected by the issue. He blamed third-party vendor Phoenix Graphics, which was contracted to print and mail ballots to voters in Brooklyn and Queens. CNN has reached out to the company to comment.
The city has ordered vendors to reschedule the new ballots “to make sure no exemptions are made in the Brooklyn borough,” Michael Rhea, executive director of the Election Board, told a meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The remaining ballots will include an explanation of why the voter is outraged. Ryan said he would use traditional and social media to ensure voters are informed of what is happening.
“Confidence must be established in the process,” Raine told the meeting.
“The BOE will do everything possible to liaise with the electorate on an administrative basis, on the aspect of reconnection and on the back-end to ensure that all ballots received are processed properly and that the votes are lengthy. Credit is given, ”RJ added.
According to Vazquez-Diaz, a total of 520,000 absentee ballots were sent across the city, the first being on September 18. As of Tuesday, it was not clear whether any ballots affected by the mistake had been returned.
City election officials were first notified of the misrepresentation on Monday afternoon following several calls from concerned voters. The envelope bug also started circulating on social media, as the mix-up shocked city voters.
Anders Kapoor, 29, who lives in Brooklyn and votes for Democrats in general, was shocked to learn that he had received another voter’s sworn envelope improperly.
“Probably, someone has an envelope of my name on it, and if they don’t read the vote as closely as I do, they can vote in my name,” he told CNN.
Kapoor told CNN. He contacted the city’s election board as soon as he realized the problem. They told him they would send him a new ballot paper, but Kapoor is worried that the mix could lead to potential questions of voter fraud.
“He’ll just pull it off and vote in person,” said Barry Petchesky, a Brooklyn resident.
Vazquez-Diaz said the election board would release a plan on Tuesday afternoon to address the issue.
Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized the election board for the mistake.
“They have to fix this immediately. This is shocking. This bug is very easy to avoid and this bug is very easy to correct,” de Blasio, a Democrat, said Tuesday.
He asked anyone who received a ballot to call and ask for a new one. De Blasio described the experience as “disappointing” for voters, saying that with 35 days to go before the election, there was still time to get the right ballot.
Although a misprinted ballot is not uncommon, this year, due to the expected surge in mail-in voting, the smallest mistakes could affect thousands if not hundreds of voters.
David Becker, founder of the Non-Partisan Center for Electoral Innovation and Research, told CNN that although mail-in ballot “makes mistakes,” this fall means that such mistakes could have far-reaching consequences, only in the likelihood of leading the electorate. No. Confused but provides more examples for President Donald Trump and critics to cast doubt on the mail-in vote.
“We have candidates and foreign rivals actively seeking to take advantage of any problem, no matter how small, to undermine voter confidence in the system to hand over this election. Most election officials across the country are double-checking to make sure there are no problems. It doesn’t happen – and it’s really impressive given how many new options there are for mail-in voting that there aren’t more problems, ”Baker said.
Baker noted that issues such as misrepresentation in New York are more likely to excuse voters than to deceive voters within the vote-by-mail system. Baker said there are many protections in the voting process that prevent a voter from voting for another.
A similar printing issue affected 6,100 Northwest County voters in Michigan. Nevago County Clerk Jason Wenderslett explained in a letter Monday that absent ballots would be left out of the main judicial membership, which would allow new ballots to be printed. Wenderslett said he was first notified of the issue over the weekend as he prepared to come up with new ballots on Thursday.
“After the arrival of these new ballots, our clerks will work diligently to resubmit new absentee ballots to all voters who have already sent ballots,” read Wonderslet’s letter.
Wanderslet noted in his letter that the county has procedures that will ensure only one ballot is counted for each voter.
“The fact that all these errors are being caught immediately and correcting them should give people confidence in the integrity of our system,” Baker said.
.
