Thousands of Voters Received Ballots With Errors, But They’ll Still Count

There were two unusual lines, both confusing and concerning, on Jonathan Latimer’s vote-by-mail ballot: “MAIL 6619” and “BROWN UNIVERSITY.”

Neither line is part of his actual address in Middlesex County, New Jersey, and so Latimer, 76, who went to college in California many years ago, was concerned the erroneous and random insertions threatened to invalidate his mail-in ballot for November’s midterm elections. If the address on his ballot did not match the address the state had on record, he wondered, would it be counted given New Jersey’s strict vote-by-mail requirements?

Turns out, Latimer is not alone. More than 43,000 vote-by-mail ballots were sent out, and the Middlesex County Clerk’s office estimated that “a large percentage of them” contained erroneous address information, though they were not able to give an exact number of affected ballots.

The clerk’s office said the problem, which came to light after ballots were sent to voters like Latimer last weekend, was due to an error “during preparation at the mail house.” All of the ballots that have problematic addresses because of the error will still be counted.

“Yes, the ballots are valid, and voters should use the materials they received,” said Cassandra Achille, the supervisor of elections in the Middlesex County Clerk’s office. “All Vote By Mail ballots received by the Board of Elections will be counted.”

The error comes at a time when some states are purging voter rolls for the slightest errors in their registration, and others are enacting stricter voter identification laws at the polls.

At the same time, mistrust in voting systems has grown around disinformation campaigns during the 2016 election. While campaigning during the 2016 presidential race, President Donald Trump cast doubt on some mail-in ballots, painting them as part of a “rigged system” against his candidacy (They were not).

Other false allegations have spread online, such as one that George Soros, the major Democratic donor, was providing voting machines at polling locations. This was quickly debunked by news outlets.

Amid this distrust, residents like Latimer grew worried that their ballots would be discarded. The clerk’s office will be sending out a letter to all voters hoping to assuage concerns.

“A letter is being sent to all voters who may have been impacted by the error, explaining the error and notifying them that the ballot materials are valid and should be used,” Achille said.

New Jersey recently expanded its vote by mail law under Gov. Philip D. Murphy. The new law, signed in August, automatically mailed ballots for the 2018 election to residents who had voted by mail in the 2016 election, regardless of whether they requested a ballot or not. The timing of the law required quick implementation by the state’s 21 county clerks, causing many to work overtime to get the vote by mail ballots out in time.