Mail-In Madness

It’s not voter fraud; it’s the process itself — the laws and the lawyers, the incompetence and the bungling bureaucrats — that makes mail-in ballots an almost inevitable nightmare. As The Post reports, as many as 25 percent of the 120,000 mailed-in ballots cast in Brooklyn alone for June’s primaries may have been disqualified, according to the borough’s Democratic Party boss.

Some lacked a postmark or a signature or arrived late, even though voters mailed them with sufficient time.

On Tuesday, the city Board of Elections technically certified the results of the June 23 primary election — six weeks after the fact, in accordance with election law. But the results in some races may yet change.

And late Monday, federal Judge Analisa Torres ordered election officials to count thousands of mail-in ballots that had been invalidated.

Torres reasoned that because voters — in the midst of a deadly pandemic — were encouraged to cast mail-in votes, they should not have been penalized due to circumstances beyond the control of voters (i.e., ballots returned late or without postmarks). One thing’s clear: It’s a mess.

Did some voters make mistakes with a system they’re not familiar with? No doubt.

Did the US Postal Service fall down on the job, at least in Brooklyn? Seems that way — to a degree, anyway.

Could the Board of Elections (not exactly known for its efficiency and competence) have handled the votes better? Quite likely.

The laws, too, are technical, complex and hard to comply with, no matter how good the bureaucrats or how experienced the voters are with the system.

And that poses big hurdles for the hugely important presidential election in November: How many voters will be disenfranchised then, for whatever reason?

What sort of patchwork of activist judges will decide what does and does not get counted? Will the rules in Florida be the same as in Texas? Will one jurist allow votes without a postmark, while another won’t?

When will results be truly final?

It’s understandable that some areas of the country, particularly COVID-19 hotspots, want to make mail-in voting the norm for the presidential contest. But if that’s the case, they need to smooth out the bumps long before November.

If New York is any example, they’ve got their work cut out for them.