Absentee Votes Returned to Senders

11/8/2005
Kristopher Daams Santa Clarita Valley Signal

Valencia resident William Duke takes his vote seriously. Since he graduated college in 1959, he has voted in every election he could, making sure the wheels of American democracy get his input.
    He brought his and his wife?s absentee ballot envelopes to the post office on Creekside Road in Valencia on Thursday, thinking democracy would go as planned.
    But when the retired engineer received the two absentee ballot envelopes back in his mailbox the next day, he became concerned and contacted the California Secretary of State?s office and the office of the Los Angeles County registrar to make sure no other votes could potentially become marginalized.
    The lavender envelopes voters send with their absentee ballots inside to the county registrar have addresses on the back and front, with bar codes, too. There is a corresponding bar code for the registrar on the front, and the voter?s on the back.
    The automated scanning system that the U.S. Postal Service uses does not make sure that an envelope is placed correctly. Scanning from bottom to top, left to right, an absentee ballot envelope could very well be scanned on the wrong side and sent to the voter instead of the registrar?s office. That is what happened with Duke and his wife.
    Richard Maher, spokesman for the Postal Service?s Southern California region, said problems like this have occurred in the past in Orange County, and that this instance was the first time he had heard of it in Los Angeles County.
    The problem is due to the mechanization of the mail-sorting process, Maher said, and added that the problems that occurred in Orange County were with the same design and with a small number of envelopes.
    A bar code on the back might get scanned when it is not supposed to.
    ?Putting a piece [of mail] in the wrong way, it?s going to read that address,? Maher said. ?Because of the way we sort mail with machines now, a human might not set eyes on a piece of mail until it?s actually in a carrier?s hands.?
    County Registrar Conny McCormack said the process utilizing that ballot design has been used for more than five years, and is used by Kern, San Diego and Alameda counties.
    McCormack called the problem the ?unintended consequences of automation.?
    About 12 reports of such a problem have been reported to her office concerning absentee ballots for today?s special election. About 637,000 absentee ballots were mailed out.
    ?Even though we certainly don?t like for this to occur, it?s not widespread,? McCormack said. ?It?s an occasional error, and they will happen.?
    If an absentee voter does get a ballot in his or her mailbox after the election, McCormack said the vote will be counted, so long as the vote is eligible.
    State law allows for absentee votes to be counted for up to 28 days after the election, McCormack said, adding that about 20 percent of the county?s ballots for tonight are absentees ? about 200,000 ballots ? whose votes will most likely not be counted tonight.
    McCormack said the real problem is when her office receives thousands of absentee ballots sent by people who think that a postmark by election day is sufficient. People will sometimes wait until election day or the day before to mail in their ballot.
    Absentee ballots are required to be at the registrar?s office by 8 p.m. on election day. Any ballots received after that deadline are not eligible to be counted.
    If an absentee voter happens to receive a returned ballot in his or her mailbox after election day, McCormack said they should call (800) 815-2666 and ask for the absentee ballot section for an investigation.