Here's how to make sure your vote gets counted

[marmar]

More than 550,000 mail ballots rejected so far: Here’s how to make sure your vote gets counted
In an election like no other, too many ballots may be disqualified on technicalities. Here's how to avoid that

IGOR DERYSH
SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 11:00AM


(Salon) Election officials are working to make sure voters are not disenfranchised in November after an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots have been rejected in primary elections so far this year.

A Washington Post analysis found that more than 534,000 mail ballots were rejected in primaries in 23 states this year and a separate NPR analysis found more than 558,000 ballots rejected in 30 states. By comparison, less than 318,000 ballots were rejected in the 2016 general election, raising concerns that ballot issues could tip the election. After all, the 2016 presidential race was decided by about 77,000 combined votes, spread across in three states.

"We've been worried about this problem," said Ellen Kurz, a veteran of several presidential campaigns who co-founded iVoteFacts, a nonprofit that seeks to educate voters about new voting options amid the pandemic. "New York's [21%] rate was crazy and New Jersey was 10%. And one of the big problems is the fact that voting by mail is going to be new in a lot of these states."

"You can't have 10% of voters disqualified because of a technicality," she told Salon in an interview. "That's nuts."

Twenty states have expanded mail voting amid the pandemic this year, resulting in many voters casting mail ballots for the very first time. A recent study found that first-time mail voters in Florida were twice as likely to have their ballots rejected than voters who had previously voted by mail. The issue is particularly concerning in key battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the three states that tipped the race to President Trump in 2016. Election officials in those states alone "tossed out more than 60,480 ballots" during the primaries, according to the Washington Post. More than 60,000 more votes were rejected in swing states such as Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada and Maine. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/08/more-than-550000-mail-ballots-rejected-so-far-heres-how-to-make-sure-your-vote-gets-counted/

[beachbumbob]

1. need to change title as NO ballot been rejected "now" as ballots have not been sent out

in almost all cases

these were primary ballots per article