With the clock ticking down to Election Day, officials are cautiously optimistic New York has fixed problems with mail-in voting that led to delays and disenfranchisement in a rocky June primary. As many as 4 to 5 million New Yorkers are expected to cast absentee ballots after Gov. Andrew Cuomo authorized their widespread use because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the primary, two out of five votes were cast by mail, an unprecedented ratio that strained a system that normally handles fewer than 1 in 20 votes. Local election boards struggled to get ballots into voters’ hands on time. There was confusion about ballots arriving without a postmark to indicate whether they had been mailed by Election Day. Thousands of mailed ballots were disqualified over technical issues, like missing signatures. But after a summer of refinements, officials say the state is better prepared. “I don’t anticipate that it’s going to be perfect,” state board of election commissioner Douglas Kellner said. “But I do think it will be pretty good.” Among the fixes: —The state let voters request absentee ballots earlier — in late August, rather than early October. —It redesigned ballot envelopes to make it clear where voters must put their signature. —Some archaic reasons for rejected ballots are gone. —Absentee ballots will no longer be disqualified if someone changes the color of their ink or switches from a pen to a pencil while filling out the form. —In maybe the biggest change, election officials must now notify voters by phone or email within 24 hours if there is a problem with their ballot. Voters will get either five or seven days to fix problems, depending on when their ballot arrived at the elections office. Before those changes, New York’s rate of rejected absentee ballots had been among the nation’s highest. During the 2018 midterm elections, 34,095 absentee ballots — nearly 14% of those cast — were disqualified by elections officials, according to advocacy group League of Women Voters. “There are always problems with every human system, but the good news is that there’s ample time to fix them and voters have plenty of options,” Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner said. “The most important thing is to make a plan to vote now, and then have a back-up plan in case you need it.” Concerns remain. New York is the largest of over two dozen states, including Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio, where voters can request an absentee ballot as late as Oct. 27 — seven days before the election. That leaves little time for officials to process an application and mail out the ballot in time for the voter to have it back in the mail by Election Day. Between 100,000 to 200,000 voters didn’t receive their absentee ballot in time for the June primary, according to Kellner. He urged voters to request and mail back ballots early. “It’s time for voters to make their decision on how they’re going to vote now and not wait until the last minute,” he said. For the primary, the state also inadvertently created a problem by sending voters a postage-paid return envelope for their absentee ballot. Because postage wasn’t required, postal workers in Brooklyn then failed to put a postmark on nearly 4,900 of those envelopes, leading to uncertainty about […]
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