First mail ballots to go out Wednesday; avoid these mistakes that would get yours rejected
Thousands of people in Shawnee County are about to vote by mail for the first time.
Shawnee County election commissioner Andrew Howell talked Tuesday about how voters can avoid making mistakes that would keep their ballot from being counted.
A record number of mail ballots are expected to be cast in Shawnee County in the Nov. 3 general election, Howell said.
The most common mistake people make while voting by mail is to forget to sign the envelope in which they place their ballot, Howell said.
If that happens, he said, their ballot becomes invalid.
Howell encouraged voters, before mailing in their mail ballots, to remember to sign the statement on the envelope’s exterior confirming they filled out the ballot and put it in the envelope, or that someone else helped them or is signing on their behalf.
Probably the second-most common mistake is to list an address on the ballot envelope’s exterior that is different from the one at which the voter is registered, Howell added.
Record numbers
Howell’s office on Wednesday will begin mailing out ballots to registered voters who have requested them for the Nov. 3 election.
That office until Oct. 27 will continue to accept applications for mail ballots and to mail out ballots to all registered voters who request them.
Applications for mail ballots can be found on Howell’s office’s website at www.snco.us/election.
Applications may also be requested by calling that office at 785-251-5900.
The most mail ballots cast in a Shawnee County election is just below 8,000, with that record having been set during the November 2016 general election, Howell said.
In comparison, he said, his office already has received more than 20,000 requests for mail ballots in the Nov. 3 election.
Howell attributes the surge in voting by mail in part to COVID-19 fears.
Still, he said that even before the pandemic, people in Shawnee County were increasingly voting in advance by mail or in person at the county election office.
Advance voting in person begins next Monday at the election office at 3420 S.W. Van Buren.
An onslaught of ballots
Howell feels confident his office is sufficiently prepared to process the anticipated onslaught of mail ballots after more than $85,000 in federal coronavirus relief money was recently used to buy equipment to help it accomplish that.
Likewise, the U.S. Postal Service has more than enough capacity to handle whatever volume of mail it receives, that office said in a statement on its website.
“To put it in context, the Postal Service delivers 433 million pieces of mail a day,” that statement said. “Even if all Americans were to vote by mail this year, 330 million ballots over the course of the election would be only three-quarters of what the Postal Service delivers in one single day.”
After filling out a mail ballot, a registered voter’s options include:
• Mailing it to the election office at 3420 S.W. Van Buren, where advance ballots will be accepted only if they are postmarked on or before Nov. 3 and received by that office no later than Nov. 6.
• Delivering the ballot in person to the election office, where a drop box is present and mail ballots may be submitted in person through Nov. 3.
• Dropping the ballot off in either of two drop boxes the election office will maintain at public sites away from that office. Details regarding when and where those boxes will be available hadn’t been finalized as of Tuesday.
Shawnee County voters who submit mail ballots may track the status of those ballots using the county election office website at www.snco.us/election/vote, Howell said.
If a voter is sent an advance ballot but then loses it, he or she may request that a second ballot be sent, Howell said.
However, the second ballot will be considered “provisional” and will not be counted until the election office confirms that the voter who submitted it hasn’t voted twice, he said.
