(PresidentialWire.com)- Voters in New York City this week reported that they received mail-in ballots for the November presidential election that didn’t just have the wrong names but had the wrong addresses too. The ballots were also marked for military use, even though the people receiving them were not members of the military…nor had they ever been.
It comes as President Donald Trump doubles down on his opposition to mass mail-in voting, and as some Democrats slowly begin to realize that their push to implement the system might actually backfire on them.
The New York Post reported that the misprints on the ballot papers mean that voters in New York received an “Official Military Absentee Ballot” instead of a “Military/Absentee Ballot,” which are two entirely different things. Two journalists from the New York Post even received ballots like this and said that they were concerned their voters may not be properly tallied.
“Experts from both sides of the political aisle said the typo ultimately wouldn’t matter because the city Board of Elections uses the same ballots for both military and traditional absentee voters who live in the same district,” the Post reported.
It does show, however, that the system simply isn’t ready to implement mass mail-in voting in a reliable fashion. Even Democrats in the state are admitting it, including City Councilman Jimmy Van Brammer. He expressed anger over the issue and said it led voters to believe their votes wouldn’t’ count.
“This apparent typo just has everyone confused and believing these are invalid ballots,” he explained. “It’s absolutely outrageous that when everyone is watching them, they still screw up the most basic thing, which is printing the ballot correctly. Did no one proof this?”
Good question.
The New York City Board of Elections responded to the issue, blaming it on a printing error by vendor Phoenix Graphics, who was contracted to print and mail them to voters in Queens and Brooklyn.
“We will ensure on behalf of the voters in Brooklyn that the proper ballots and ballot envelopes are in the hands of the voters in advance of Election Day so they can vote,” Board of Elections Director Michael Ryan said. “This problem will get corrected.”
The NYC Board of Elections also published a tweet encouraging people to “DM” them or send them an email if they received an incorrect ballot.
— NYCBoardOfElections (@BOENYC) September 29, 2020
Really inspires confidence, huh?
