Voter errors can lead to rejected ballots

The U.S. Postal Service and state voting procedures are under scrutiny as the nation approaches the Nov. 3 presidential election in the midst of a pandemic.

That’s as it should be: It is critical that the nation feel secure and confident in voting procedures and in the postal service’s ability to handle an unprecedented volume of mail-in ballots prompted by the public health concerns surrounding in-person voting.

For its part, postal officials point out the number of ballots being mailed may be the most ever, but that volume of mail does not approach the volume in the Christmas holiday season. They say they can handle it, as long as neither state election offices nor voters wait until the last minute.

The delivery of ballots is a concern, but another concern not being as widely discussed is the rejection of mailed ballots because they’re not filled in properly.

At a polling place, there are up to a dozen election workers to ensure that people vote properly so that all votes count.

They watch while a voter signs his or her name; they are available for questions if a voter is confused by any step of the process; and it is nearly impossible to fill in circles incorrectly on an automated voting machine.

On a mail-in ballot filled out by a voter in the privacy of home, mistakes can easily happen and there is no one to catch them before the ballot is put in the mail.

Those mistakes lead to ballot rejection, which can affect the election outcome.

A recent analysis by NPR revealed that more than 550,000 ballots were rejected in this year’s primaries. That’s far more than the 318,728 ballots rejected in the 2016 general election and has raised alarms about what might happen in November when tens of millions of more voters are expected to cast their ballots by mail, many for the first time, NPR reported.

The mistakes are most likely to be made by firsttime absentee voters, which may include elderly citizens at risk of contracting COVD19 and thus do not feel safe going to polling places. Studies also show that voters of color and young voters are more likely than others to have their ballots not count, NPR reported.

The most common mistake that gets ballots rejected is that required signatures are missing or don’t match the one on record, or the ballot arrives too late, the analysis showed.

NPR reported that in key battleground states, the rejected ballots could have made the difference in who wins the electoral votes determining the outcome of the election.

According to NPR, more than 37,000 primary ballots were rejected in the Pennsylvania June primary, and in 2016, just over 44,000 votes gave President Trump the crucial electoral votes. In Wisconsin, NPR noted, Trump won in 2016 by almost 23,000 votes. More than 23,000 absentee ballots were rejected in the state’s presidential primary in April.

Election officials of both parties are trying to get the word out in an effort to limit ballot rejections. In Pennsylvania, VotesPA has instructions and diagrams online explaining the process of requesting and mailing in ballots and is reportedly planning an ad campaign, urging people who have applied for absentee ballots to return them immediately, so they don’t risk having them not count because they arrived too late.

The integrity of voting depends on each voter’s care in filling out a ballot whether in person or by mail. In this year’s unusual pandemic election, following the instructions — and helping others understand those instructions — is critical. We urge county elections officials to utilize their resources online and in person to help voters fill out ballots properly and sign them. The results depend on it.