This election, I recommend that everyone votes in person, preferably during early voting. However, voting by mail is sometimes the only option for people who are in institutions or homebound, have physical restrictions or demanding work schedules, and other such reasons.
If voting by mail, PLEASE BE AWARE that new rules in North Carolina require you to securely seal the inner envelope that holds the ballot itself as well as the outer mailing envelope. Election officials are expected to throw out thousands of ballots this election due to unsealed inner envelopes.
Common Cause North Carolina and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice investigated the rejection rate of this election’s mail in ballots in 27 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. They reported that the rejection rate was about 3% statewide, although it was higher than that in some of the largest counties.
An article by the New York Times included this quote from an election official here in my county, Wake County.
Gerry Cohen, a board of elections member in Wake County, the largest in the state, said that about 2.5 percent of ballots were rejected over the first three weeks of mail voting because of unsealed inner envelopes. That rate had dropped slightly to about 2 percent this past week, he said. The county has received about 8,000 ballots so far.
“It has increased the number being rejected,” he said of the new guidance. “The state argued that somebody could have — since your inner envelope was unsealed — could have somehow gone into it and changed the markings on the ballot and put it back in.” He added, “I find that far-fetched.”
So if you are voting by mail, or know someone who is, make sure that vote counts. SEAL BOTH ENVELOPES!!!!
For more information, you should be able to read the entire New York Times article through this gifted link from my subscription:
