Hundreds of thousands of mail ballots were rejected across the country during the 2022 general election, according to a state-by-state analysis by NPR. That’s about 1% of ballots that were returned to election officials, a rate similar to prior years.
The analysis, which drew primarily from states that track ballot rejections on a statewide basis, provides an incomplete picture. That’s because many states don’t track this information at the state level, and other states that do track ballot rejections statewide told NPR that their data were not ready to be shared.
For example, Illinois had shared data with NPR that showed a far higher rejection rate than other states’. When asked about it, Illinois officials retracted the data and said they needed more time for the final numbers….
In some cases, however, these new rules did lead to a sharp rise in ballot rejections. For example, after new ID requirements went into effect in Texas, the state had an unprecedented share of mail ballots rejected in the following election. During the state’s March primary last year, more than 12% of mail ballots were rejected. The overwhelming share of those ballots were tossed out because voters completely missed the part of the return envelope that required a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number. This was a stark increase from previous elections. In 2020, Texas had a 0.8% mail ballot rejection rate; in 2018 it was 1.7%.
During the 2022 general election, though, the statewide mail ballot rejection rate in Texas was 2.7% — higher than other states but far lower than the primaries. State officials attribute the drop to design changes to the ballot and efforts to educate voters.