Printing Error Responsible for NYC Absentee Voters Getting Wrong Return Envelopes, BOE Says
2020-09-29 11:46

With five weeks left until the Nov. 3 election, many voters are eager to cast their ballots absentee and early. A growing number of registered voters in Brooklyn, however, received ballots on Monday with an incorrect return address.

Such voters include Anders Kapur, who has voted absentee in the past without any problems. By his account, the ballot was marked with his correct information, including his address and voter ID number, but the return envelope was addressed to a completely different person.

Kapur was able to get in touch with a Board of Elections representative before the end of the business day who guaranteed a new ballot would be sent. The operator told Kapur the issue would be logged and passed up the chain.

The guarantee of a new ballot didn't ease Kapur's frustrations. He's begun to make alternative voting plans, like casting his vote in person.

Other voters, like Hannah Schneider, weren't lucky enough to get an answer before the end of the day. She also took to Twitter to try and get answers.

"I was immediately so disappointed," Schneider said when reached by phone. Just months earlier during the New York primaries, she had requested an absentee ballot that never came.

Schneider, like Kapur, is working on a backup voting plan. She and her husband, who also received an incorrect return envelope, live near Kapur in the Crown Heights/Prospect Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

A Board of Election spokesperson told News 4 that a vendor hired to print and distribute ballots to voters in Queens and Brooklyn was responsible for the error.

"We are determining how many voters have been affected but we can assure that the vendor will address this problem in future mailings, and make sure people who received erroneous envelopes receive new ones," the spokesperson said, adding the proper ballots and envelopes would get to voters in advance of Nov. 3.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called the mix-up "appalling" in a Tuesday news conference and criticized the Board of Election for not being "a modern agency," saying it needed to be reformed.

The issue surrounding incorrect return addresses was not the only thing prompting questions from absentee voters. NYC Votes told several voters on Twitter that absentee ballots labeled "Official Absentee Military Ballot" were correct, "even if you are not serving in the military." The account also responded to a user with questions about return addresses, and directed them to call the local BOE office.

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