Be Sure It Counts
How To Complete Your Mail-In Ballot And Why It’s Important
By Raoul Dennis
Just under a month before the 2020 presidential elections and as thousands of Prince Georgians continue to receive their mail-in ballots at home this week, voters turn their attention to completing their ballots accurately.
A How-To appears here (see below).
The Prince George’s County Board of Elections expect county voters to participate in the 2020 elections and far higher numbers than in recent years.
Leaders are expecting some 400,000 Prince Georgians to vote in the upcoming presidential election (there are nearly 600,000 registered voters in the county).
But there’s real cause for concern.
According to state election officials, nearly 35,000 ballots were rejected in Maryland's first statewide vote-by-mail election in June.
Tens of thousands of Maryland vote-by-mail ballots were rejected and went uncounted in Maryland's June primary, according to a summary of the state's first vote-by-mail election triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, reported WUSA9.
It further reported, the tally of rejected ballots was 34,948, which amounted to 2.39% of the nearly 3.6 million mail-in votes that were cast.
“The numbers, while considered low by state elections authorities, are an indication that voting by mail brings a higher risk of errors that can disqualify ballots, according to Maryland State Board of Elections Deputy Administrator Nikki Charlson,” the report affirmed.
Here’s why so many were rejected:
1. Ballots returned late
2. Ballot improperly completed
3. Signature issues
Charlson explained that vote-by-mail primary resulted in higher than normal participation rates.
"We do see a higher rate of rejecting ballots with absentee," Charleson said. "You're just not completing the process in the presence of trained election officials."
Leading reasons for the rejection of ballots during the June primary were a failure to get the ballot mailed in time and a failure to sign the ballot envelope to verify the voter's identity.
According to the State Board of Election's election report:
More than 87% of the rejects arrived late
Nearly 9.5% of the rejects were because voters failed to sign the envelope
Other reasons for vote-by-mail rejections in Maryland have included everything from unsealed envelopes to a small number of unregistered voters submitting ballots.
