Postmarking Problems Could Invalidate 1,000s Of NYC Ballots: Pols
NEW YORK, NY — On June 22, Dave Farber dropped his absentee ballot in the mail in Brooklyn, confident it would be counted for the upcoming primary election the next day.
Like many New Yorkers, the Clinton Hill resident was relying on new rules meant to help more voters send in their ballot by mail given the coronavirus pandemic, which made it so any absentee ballot postmarked by June 23 would be accepted.
But two weeks after the election — as election workers finally start opening the hundreds of thousands of absentee forms — Farber isn't so sure his will be among them.
An apparent breakdown at an overwhelmed United States Postal Service has left thousands of absentee envelopes without a postmark, meaning they will be thrown out even though voters mailed them in time, according to party officials.
"[I'm] obviously concerned that my vote won't be counted," Farber told Patch this week. "If absentee ballots that were timely mailed but that weren't timely postmarked...will not be counted it's really unfortunate."
The postmarking problem, first reported by WNYC, has a growing number of elected officials, advocate and party leaders urging the Board of Elections to count all ballots received by June 30 — the cut-off for accepting mail-in ballots — even if they don't have a postmark.
The group says Gov. Andrew Cuomo can invoke the same emergency powers he used to extend the deadline to require the BOE to do so.
"Whether or not a ballot was postmarked is out of voters’ control," the coalition wrote in a letter. "These voters followed the rules and mailed their ballots on or before June 23 — their votes should be counted."
But so far, the governor and legal experts have effectively squashed the idea. Ballots without a postmark will only be counted if they were received before June 23.
In Brooklyn, party officials say the number of invalidated ballots are in the thousands, potentially the highest of the five boroughs.
A spokesperson for USPS said they are looking into these reports.
"We are aware that some ballots may not have been postmarked and are communicating with the Boards of Election involved to investigate possible solutions for this election," spokesperson Steve Doherty told Patch.
Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte, the party leader for Kings County Democrats, said the problem points to larger issues with funding at the postal service.
"We saw historic early voter turnout in the June 23rd primary. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Federal government’s inadequate funding of the U.S. Postal Service — which led to the Post Office not being able to efficiently mark the quantity of ballots received in a timely manner — created chaos," she said.
USPS insisted their "financial condition is not going to impact our ability to deliver election and political mail this year."
But the postmark problem —one of many that plagued the primary — is of particular concern given mail-in ballots are going to be just as, if not more important, come the general election in November, advocates and Farber said.
"Even if election officials cannot legally fix this situation...there needs to be better communication for the general election," said Farber, who said his spouse also had issues with his ballot and had to vote in person because it didn't arrive in time.
"Voters need to know that they run the risk of having their mail-in votes thrown out unless they mail them well ahead of time, and voters should not rely on USPS or should make plans to vote early, rather than rely on mail-in balloting."
The New York City and state Board of Elections and the United States Postal Service did not respond to requests for comment.
This article originally appeared on the Brooklyn Patch
