What is rejected votes

In at least a few states, including Florida and North Carolina, absentee ballots cast by people of color and young people are being rejected at rates far higher than the average. And even a low rejection rate can have enormous import, given the torrent of absentee votes cast this year. Still, some experts on election administration say they are heartened by the reports they have received to date. Many experts feared that rejection rates would mushroom even more as mail voting reached new highs this fall.

Instead, it appears that many voters have risen to the challenge. But 99 percent or more of them will count. Should the early indications prove true, there will be no single explanation for the low number of rejections.

As election officials tell it, a confluence of changes has made it easier for people to vote by mail since last spring, when many states were unprepared for the wave of mail ballots cast by people fearful of voting in person during a pandemic. For one thing, some states have rolled back confusing requirements. Minnesota no longer requires that absentee ballots be witnessed, acceding to a court ruling that the mandate was not justified during a pandemic.

In Kentucky, technological advances that have made it possible to track mail ballots enabled state officials to relax longstanding provisions, such as the requirement for multiple signatures, that were a major cause of past rejections. Even those voters whose ballots are rejected, he said, are automatically notified by email within an hour. Election officials also say many voters appear more motivated to cast ballots this year, and more attentive to instructions on mail voting that have flooded newspapers, television and the internet.

Changes in the design of ballots also have been a factor: On the advice of experts, for example, election officials in Rochester Hills, Mich. More are now doing that, making it easier to notify voters of problems with their ballots. It is not only voters who are more aware of the potential pitfalls in voting by mail.

They sit in front of the room as students take their exam. They watch them to make sure the students are looking at their own papers. This is enough to prevent most cheating. Now, imagine a teacher, after several years without incident, deciding that since she has seen no cheating, there is no real reason to watch the students. Instead, after handing out the exams, she leaves the room, returns to her office, and returns an hour later to collect the exams. If you needed to give an exam without a proctor, you would have to go to great length, such as producing completely different exams for each student, to ensure the integrity of the exams.

The Democrat party has long promoted mail-in voting, as Democrats believe that their supporters are less likely to vote in person than their opponents' voters. The pandemic presented a unique opportunity to massively increase the number of mail-in ballots and urge their followers to vote by mail. As Election Day neared, the Democrats realized there was a hitch — namely, that regulations needed to certify mail-in ballots can be strict and many are rejected — this led them to turn around and start urging their voters to vote in person.

By the time they spotted the problem, millions of voters had submitted mail-in ballots either by mailing them in or leaving them off at drop boxes. A report from ABC 6 in Philadelphia from October 22, gives data on ballot rejections from previous elections that include rejection rates from Philadelphia County of 4. The same report outlines the cumbersome steps needed to be taken in order to validate a mail-in ballot. Applying these percentages to the current election totals would suggest thousands of such ineligible ballots in these four counties alone.

What's more, since the bulk of mail-in voting this year is coming from people who have never before done so, the likelihood of disqualifying errors is considerably higher. Add to that the fact that the Biden campaign did no in-person canvassing, no direct assistance to make sure its voters correctly followed the procedures, and it is clear that the push for mail-in ballots had the potential to cause them more harm than good.

Disqualification of ballot by board of elections. The voter may then return the same application after supplying the required information. Notice of rejection shall immediately be given in writing to the applicant. The absentee ballot envelope, unopened, shall be placed in a container of rejected absentee ballots for the election. Notice of the rejection shall immediately be given in writing to the voter. B If the proper identification has not been submitted, the ballot shall be treated as a provisional ballot, as provided in subchapter 6A of this chapter.

See law: 17 V. Failure to follow the procedures set forth in this section shall render the applicant's ballot void. See law: Mass. Laws Chapter 54 Section A rejected ballot envelope and the ballot therein shall be returned to the clerk who delivered it and retained by the clerk as required by state and federal law or until the final termination of any court action in which it may be involved, whichever is later, and then destroyed.

The election took place against a backdrop of uncertainty. Our readers had questions about what to expect in elections at all levels of government, from the casting of ballots to the certification of final results.

Ballotpedia's Election Help Desk was designed to answer those questions. Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers.

Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Share this page Follow Ballotpedia. What's on your ballot? Preparing to vote in ? Preview your ballot! Jump to: navigation , search. No poll worker or other election official shall open an affidavit envelope if the voter's affidavit signature or mark is not witnessed by the signatures of two witnesses or a notary public, or other officer, including a military commissioned officer, authorized to acknowledge oaths, and no ballot envelope or ballot therein may be removed or counted.

If it is found to be sufficient, the vote shall be allowed. If the affidavit is insufficient, the vote shall not be allowed. The elections official shall write the cause of the rejection on the face of the identification envelope only after completing the procedures described in subdivision d. The board of registrars or absentee ballot clerk shall promptly notify the elector of such rejection, a copy of which notification shall be retained in the files of the board of registrars or absentee ballot clerk for at least two years.

The chairman of the county board of elections shall compare the signatures on the outer envelope and the detachable flap with the signature of the voter that appears on the registration card.

If the outer envelope and the detachable flap are found to be in order, the chairman shall read aloud the name of the voter. If the vote of the voter is not rejected on a challenge then made as provided in subsection 4 of this section, the chairman shall remove the detachable flap and place the inner envelope unopened in a ballot box which has been provided for the purpose.

If applicable, a member of the board shall tear the flap from the envelope containing the absentee by mail ballot and leave the envelope sealed. Rejected if incorrect. The warden may not open the envelope and shall write ""Rejected"" on it, the reason why and the warden's initials if the warden finds that: A. Each envelope, so marked, all applications for absent voter ballots and all lists referred to in this section shall be preserved and destroyed in the manner provided by law for the retention, preservation or destruction of official ballots.

If he does not mark the envelope Rejected as defective , he shall mark a check against the name of the voter on the absent voting disposition list required by section ninety-one or section ninety-one A, as the case may be. Said clerk, or such person, shall record on tally sheets prepared and furnished by the state secretary all envelopes, as well as accepted or rejected ballots of absent voters; and, in cities and towns divided into voting precincts, a separate record shall be made for each precinct.

The statement shall be initialed by the chairman of the board of election inspectors. Said envelope and the ballot or ballots contained therein shall be returned to the city, township or village clerk and retained and preserved in the manner now provided by law for the retention and preservation of official ballots voted at such election.

If the number does not match, the election judges must compare the signature provided by the applicant to determine whether the ballots were returned by the same person to whom they were transmitted; 4 the voter is registered and eligible to vote in the precinct or has included a properly completed voter registration application in the return envelope; 5 the certificate has been completed as prescribed in the directions for casting an absentee ballot; and 6 the voter has not already voted at that election, either in person or, if it is after the close of business on the seventh day before the election, by absentee ballot.

The return envelope from accepted ballots must be preserved and returned to the county auditor. All proper votes on each absentee ballot received by an election authority at or before the time fixed by law for the closing of the polls on election day shall be counted. Except as provided in section The basic factor to be considered by an election board when making a determination of whether a particular ballot must be rejected is whether any identifying mark appears on the ballot which, in the opinion of the election board, constitutes an identifying mark such that there is a reasonable belief entertained in good faith that the ballot has been tampered with and, as a result of the tampering, the outcome of the election would be affected.

The clerk shall record this information in the statewide centralized voter registration database. The moderator shall save all the unopened envelopes and shall preserve the envelopes with the ballots cast at the election as provided in RSA If the voter's signature or the required voter identification is missing, the presiding judge shall write "Rejected" on the front of the official mailing envelope. The judge or election clerk shall enter the voter's name in the signature rosters or register and shall write the notation "Rejected--Missing Signature" or "Rejected--Missing Required Voter Identification" in the "Notations" column of the register.

The presiding judge shall place the official mailing envelope unopened in a container provided for rejected ballots. When the casting of such ballots shall have been completed the clerks or inspectors shall ascertain the number of such ballots of each kind which have been deposited in the ballot box by deducting from the number of envelopes opened the number of missing ballots, and shall make a return thereof.

These rejected ballots are then turned over to the county canvassing board for final determination of eligibility. The subsequent death of an absentee voter after having voted by absentee ballot does not constitute grounds for rejecting the ballot. Absentee ballots must be accompanied by: 1. A plain opaque envelope in which voted ballots must be placed by the voter; 2. An envelope bearing an affidavit stating that the voter is qualified to vote and that the voter has personally marked the ballots, and has not exhibited the marked ballots to any other person; 3.

A return envelope addressed to the secretary of the county election board; and 4. The board of elections may take this action even in the absence of a challenge to the ballot and may take this action at any time prior to the separation of the ballot from its application and certifying envelope. Upon ascertaining that the proper identification has been submitted by the voter, the election officials shall mark the checklist, open the certificate envelope, turn the certificate side face down, and hand the envelope face down to a third election official who shall remove the ballots from the envelopes and deposit the ballot in the ballot box or vote tabulator.

A voter's failure to provide in the statement on the back of the envelope his full middle name or his middle initial shall not be a material omission, rendering his ballot void, unless the voter failed to provide in the statement on the back of the envelope his full first and last name.

A voter's failure to provide the date, or any part of the date, including the year, on which he signed the statement printed on the back of the envelope shall not be considered a material omission and shall not render his ballot void. The inspectors shall reinsert each rejected ballot into the certificate envelope in which it was delivered and enclose the certificate envelopes and ballots, and securely seal the ballots and envelopes in an envelope marked for rejected absentee ballots.

These states changed their policies in to allow for additional excuses related to COVID such as being at high risk for infections, being in quarantine, or carrying for somebody in quarantine.

Both are considered absentee voting; thus, the data for transmission method are commingled and cannot be reported separately. The data listed here is taken verbatim from the report with percentages calculated by Ballotpedia using those figures. Madison County and Valley County in Idaho reported more mailed ballots counted than mailed ballots received. These data are currently available from the state. Other turnout numbers and the associated percentages come from both the state's official canvas.

Other turnout numbers and the associated percentages come from a trends document located on the South Carolina Secretary of State's website. As a disclaimer, the document describes the number as "Ballots Cast" rather than ballots counted. This analysis assumes ballots cast equals ballots counted and calculated a number of ballots returned by adding the number of rejected ballots to the ballots cast total.

Additional correspondence clarified that the number of rejected ballots does not include ballots received after the receipt deadline. It is unclear whether the and EAC reports include late ballots when calculating the total number of rejected ballots for each state. The state also received ballots after the receipt deadline. Delaware does not count late ballots as rejected ballots. For the purpose of Ballotpedia's analysis, the eight rejected ballots and late ballots are included altogether as rejected ballots in order to make Delaware's rate more comparable to those of other states where late ballots are counted as rejected ballots.

This results in a rejection rate of 6. The EAC does not conduct original research when compiling data for its annual survey. Instead, the body submits questionnaires to state election officials and reports what is provided with additional references if needed.

No such references exist for Georgia's submission. If you are aware of information that may explain the reason for this difference, please email us. This results in a rejection rate of 3.

Following communication with the Secretary of State's office, there are no plans to update the file further and any such updates, were they to occur, would take place on an ad hoc basis. Ballotpedia arrived at the number of 6, rejected ballots by adding the 4, ballots reported as rejected with the 2, ballots that had not been cured as of Nov. The number of rejected ballots comes from the EAC report. These figures may change following the release of the Election Administration Commission's report.

It is unclear whether New Mexico counts late ballots as rejected ballots, or if there were more ballots received and counted after PM on Election Day. Figures were provided to Ballotpedia over the phone from the North Dakota Secretary of State's office.