After primary elections, some county officials report seeing an increase in the number of rejected mail-in ballots, flagged for errors to be corrected, and risk not being counted.
“At the moment we are seeing a historically high and catastrophic rate of vote-by-mail ballots,” said James Slattery, senior attorney of the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP).
Slattery said that across Texas the average rate has been between 20% and 40% of mail-in-ballots flagged for rejection.
The TCRP said that the new vote-by-mail laws have created a confusing process for voters
“SB 1 requires voters to put their Texas driver’s license number or their social security number on their vote by mail materials, and that number has to match what is in their official voter files with the county election’s office,” said Slattery.
Now voters whose mail-in ballots were flagged for errors have until Monday the 7th to correct them—or they won’t be counted
“If you can get it to our office on Monday, drive it in, if you can’t you can still put it in the mail and if we’re fortunate enough to get it by Monday then your vote will count,” said Garza.
Remi Garza elections administrator for Cameron County says that they had about 10% of mail-in ballots flagged for corrections.
Slattery added that these new requirements are prone to issues
“Also government databases are not updated sufficiently enough,” said Slattery. “That is leading to a huge surge in rejections.”
