Here’s everything you need to knowabout mail ballots
Harris County will handle a record number of mail ballots in this election as voters seek a safer alternative to visiting polling sites during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of Tuesday, the county clerk had sent more than 245,000 absentee ballots to voters, more than twice the number than during the last presidential election four years ago. So far, 104,826 have been returned. The previous record, set in 2016, was 101,594.
Mail ballots typically benefit Republicans, a Chronicle analysis found, though that could shift this year as President Donald Trump hasmade unfounded claims about fraudulent absentee voting. The Texas Democratic Party unsuccessfully sued to expand
absentee ballot eligibility to any voter concerned about the coronavirus. Texas is one of five states where voters cannot use fear of COVID-19 as an ex
cuse to vote by mail.
Mail ballots are more expensive to produce and require more labor to process. They also are the only ballots in Harris County
that produce a paper record. So, how will Harris County handle all of these ballots in an election with expected record turnout?
First, residents must request a mail ballot by Friday. To vote absentee in Texas, a voter must be 65 or older, disabled, in jail or out of the county during the voting period. Fear of COVID-19 alone does not qualify a voter as disabled; however, it can be combined with other health factors to make a voter eligible.
The Attorney General’s Office said it may prosecute voters who lie on on applications, even well after the election. The county clerk, however, approves all applications that are submitted and has no duty to vet them.
Harris County uses a vendor in Arizona to print mail ballots, which are then shipped to Houston and mailed to voters.
Votersmust complete their ballot, sign it, and return it. Ballots can be mailed back to the county clerk via the U.S. Postal Service, using two stamps. Postal carriers will transport any ballots, however, no matter how much postage they carry — the county ultimately pays this tab.
Ballots also can be delivered by hand to the drop-off site at NRG Arena. Harris County originally opened 12 sites, but the governor later limited counties to one. For in-person delivery, voters must bring a valid form of identification. As of Friday, 13 percent of re
turnedmail ballots were dropped at NRG.
If residents received a mail ballot but insteadwant to vote in person, they can do so. However, they must bring their mail ballot to the polling site so it canbe canceled. If they fail to bring themail ballot, theymust cast a provisional in-person ballot, which is not automatically tallied. If the clerk’s office never receives a mail ballot from such a voter, the provisional ballot is counted.
When ballots arrive at the county election headquarters, clerks capture an image of the envelope, in case voters made any marks or scribbles on the ballot that could be helpful in determining the intent of their ballot. The unopened ballots are stored in a secure vault until they can be verified by the Signature Verification Committee.
The committee has 100 members, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. They
work in pairs — one from each party — to ensure the signature on a ballotmatches the one on a voter’s application, previous ballots or any other county clerk document on file.
A teamof clerks double-checks any ballots that were flagged and attempts to contact voters to determinewhy a signaturemay look different. Often, voters explain they recently sustained an arm or hand injury, or had a stroke, which altered their penmanship, according to a fact sheet provided by the county clerk’s office.
Harris County voters can track the status of their mail ballot using a new online tracker.
If the committee rejects a mail ballot, the clerk’s office mails a letter to the voter explaining why the ballotwas denied and howthe resident can vote in person instead.
Texas, unlike other states, can process mail ballots before Election Day, eliminating potential vote-counting delays on Nov. 3.
Accepted ballots are opened by the clerk’s office and run through a tallying machine, which stores each ballot’s selections on memory cards. The cards are stored in a vault until Election Day, when they are loaded into a secure computer and tallied along with all other votes.
The computer is on a closedloop systemthat is not connected to the internet or any other external sources.
The results of early in-person votes and ballots received before Election Day are reported to the public after polls close that evening, usually around 9 p.m. The remaining are processed and counted as they arrive.
Mail ballots must be dropped off in-person by 7 p.m. on ElectionDay, or receivedthe following day with a postmark no later than Nov. 3.