5 mistakes that can disqualify your November mail ballot and how to avoid them

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.businessinsider.com/mistakes-that-can-disqualify-your-mail-absentee-ballot-2020-9

This fall, 43 states and the District of Columbia are offering all voters the option to vote from home if they prefer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While voting by mail allows voters to safely fill out their ballots in the comfort of their own home and avoid long lines at polling place, it can be more prone to human error than voting in person, especially for those unfamiliar with the process, leading to mail ballots getting rejected at higher rates than in-person votes.

The US Election Assistance Commission found that domestically, 33 million, or 23.7% of voters, cast ballots by mail in the 2016 presidential election. More than 318,000 of those votes, accounting for about 1% of the mail ballots that arrived at election offices, ended up being rejected.

This year alone, over half a million mail-in primary ballots have been disqualified for late arrival or other errors, according to a recent NPR analysis.

*snip*

[SheltieLover]

1. Voting in person, but TY! Important info.

[crickets]

2. K&R for visibility.

[TheBlackAdder]

3. My NJ county process votes when received and sends confirmations with an 'I voted by mail' sticker

[llmart]

4. I'll be using a drop box at my township hall.

No mailing it in. I know that many people aren't close enough to one, but I'll tell you this. Even if mine wasn't within a few miles I'd find a way to get to the nearest one and drop my ballot in it or hand deliver it to my clerk.

[Nevilledog]

6. That's what we always do. Very close to Election Office.

[wishstar]

5. In NC we can hand carry absentee ballot to early voting locations or Elections office drop-off

hand delivering sounds like the safest for anyone who doesn't want it to disappear in bowels of USPS. In Asheville, our mail gets sent down to Greenville SC and then routed back to Asheville delaying mail plus recent news stated that Greenville is reportedly one of sorting locations with dismantled sorting machines.

[llmart]

7. What???

Mail from Asheville gets routed to South Carolina? That's bizarre.

[wishstar]

8. Yes we have already faced delays for years due to closure of Asheville's processing center

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/asheville-postal-union-president-issues-a-warning-to-absentee-voters/ar-BB18f9U8?ocid=uxbndlbing

In 2014, USPS management closed the city’s processing center on Brevard Road. Now, all mail is routed to Greenville, South Carolina, where it is processed, and then routed back to Asheville.

“We’re only staging the mail now in Asheville, the night before, where we used to send that mail out as soon as it came in," Guess said. "They’ve cut the truck schedules back and the mail just sits there. They’re dismantling the post office little by little. And just by closing the processing plant here in Asheville, it’s going to get worse.”