New York City officials are blaming a third party printer for sending out incorrect absentee ballot envelopes to nearly 100k people in Brooklyn, which could mean the ballots could be invalidated:
CNN – A misprint by a third-party vendor caused nearly 100,000 Brooklyn voters to receive absentee ballot return envelopes with the wrong address and names printed on them, the New York City Board of Elections said, and voters will be sent new ballots.
In New York, absentee voters must place their completed absentee ballots into a return envelope, known as an “oath” envelope, that includes the voter’s name, address and voter ID. The oath envelope is then placed inside a second envelope to be returned to local election officials.
Voters affected by the recent error instead received an oath envelope with the personal information of another voter, raising questions about whether the ballots would be counted in the fall election. The incident comes amid widespread discussion — and frequent misinformation — about the security of mail-in voting.
Valerie Vazquez-Diaz, a spokesperson for the board, told CNN the issue affected 99,477 voters. She blamed a third-party vendor, Phoenix Graphics, which had been contracted to print and mail the ballots to voters in Brooklyn and Queens. CNN has reached out to the company for comment.
So what’s the solution? All of these voters will get a second absentee ballot with the correct oath envelopes:
Michael Ryan, the election board’s executive director, said at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon that the city has ordered the vendor to remail new ballots “to make certain that absolutely no disenfranchisement occurs in the borough of Brooklyn.”
The remailed ballots will contain an insert explaining why the voter is getting resent the ballot. Ryan said they will also be utilizing traditional and social media to make sure voters are informed of what is going on.
The idea of voters getting a second ballot, even to fix a problem like this, makes me cringe. The potential for voter fraud and voter disenfranchisement is very high in this election due to situations exactly like this. The election in November is going to be a dumpster fire.