“Postmarks come under scrutiny as states prepare for mail-in voting”

CNN:

States are bracing for controversy as they work to ensure that Postal Service postmarks and other tracking will back efforts to prove mail-in votes are sent on time. They’re seeking to avoid lawsuits and other issues about unclear markings that have dogged some primaries and could mar ballot counts come Election Day.

In primaries this summer, some ballots that lacked a postmark but were received on or near Election Day were invalidated because they did not have a stamp from the post office indicating they were received in time. The issues come as the US Postal Service faces questions over its mail delivery and whether it will be able to handle an onslaught of mail-in ballots for the general election.

In New York, so many absentee ballots for the primary were invalidated because they lacked a postmark that voters won relief from a federal judge in a lawsuit to get some of the formerly disqualified ballots counted. And in Virginia, the state’s Board of Elections this week adopted a regulation requiring that absentee ballot mail include intelligent mail barcodes, another way to track where a piece of mail is in the system.

In Nevada, the Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit against a law the state legislature passed last week changing certain provisions to make it easier to vote by mail in the November election. One of the provisions is that if an absentee ballot is received by 5 p.m. three days after Election Day but is not postmarked, it will be counted. The lawsuit claims this provision, along with others in the new legislation, is unconstitutional.

Many states add a postmark requirement to mail-in ballots to ensure that the ballots were sent before or on Election Day, trying to prevent votes submitted after Election Day from being counted….

The article includes a chart, “In 30 states, ballots must be received by Election Day or earlier.”

Share this: