Mail-in-ballot issue

I haven't voted by mail since the early 70's, but this year seemed a little bit different.

I dropped my ballot in the mailbox in front of the Maplewood P.O., mid-afternoon on 6 July.

On 8 July, my mail carrier delivered my sealed ballot through my mail slot; complete with the U.S.P.S., postmark of 6 July.

Did this happen to anybody else?

Could the U.S.P.S.'s auto sort routing machine have caused this?

Is U.S.P.S., now hiring such num-nuts that they didn't recognize the addressee from the return address?

I might understand if my ballot was a one-off; but I am of the understanding that a whole lot of people used the mail-in option in the recent primary.

To whose attention do I bring this royal screw-up? Mr. Durkin? Somebody else?

I am over 18 years of age; registered to vote and  free of any criminal disability.

I'm thinking this is not the way an election is supposed to work.

TomR

The good news is that your ballot (which is postmarked on July 6th) still has five days (including today) to make it to its correct destination.  You should definitely contact the County Clerk's Office and let them know what happened.  If you can't get through to a live person there, consider calling the Town Clerk today and asking how to proceed.  An additional option is to contact the Post Office (in person with post marked ballot in hand), explain what happened and ask that they get the ballot to its proper destination prior to the deadline for receipt of mail in ballots.  Good luck.

I'm assuming the problem is that the voter's name and address are printed on the reverse side of the ballot envelope. But this smacks of raw incompetence by the post office. It should be clear to anyone who works at the postal service that it was a mail-in ballot and should not have been delivered back to you.

A lot of hopes are pinned on voting by mail. Theoretically it can increase voter participation and end a lot of the problems of voter suppression (like closing polling stations). But if the USPS can't deliver ballots properly the whole prospect is scuttled. 

There appears to have been a scanning issue with the ballots and the USPS.  The state is aware.

More on the scanning that Max mentioned:

https://newjerseyglobe.com/governor/scanning-issues-to-blame-for-completed-mail-in-ballots-returned-to-voters-platkin-says/

Unfortunately, that was two weeks before Tom_R mailed his ballot, yet something happened again.

mrincredible said:

I'm assuming the problem is that the voter's name and address are printed on the reverse side of the ballot envelope. But this smacks of raw incompetence by the post office. It should be clear to anyone who works at the postal service that it was a mail-in ballot and should not have been delivered back to you.

 Mailed is scanned by machine, the post office end of this error is not due to human incompetence.  While the mail is delivered by a human, the sheer volume of mail they’re delivering makes it so that they barely have time to finger through the mail to make sure all the addresses are correct, let alone make sure it was something that was accidentally mid-routed.

Whoever designed and printed up the mail in ballots, however, did **** up. 

spontaneous said:

 Mailed is scanned by machine, the post office end of this error is not due to human incompetence.  While the mail is delivered by a human, the sheer volume of mail they’re delivering makes it so that they barely have time to finger through the mail to make sure all the addresses are correct, let alone make sure it was something that was accidentally mid-routed.

Whoever designed and printed up the mail in ballots, however, did **** up. 

Okay. Thank you for sorting me out. I know you worked as a letter carrier for a while. 

I hope they can redesign the ballot envelope so this doesn't happen again. I imagine there's a reason the voter name and address needs to be on the outside. 

From the linked article:

The Postal Service specifically signed off on the design of the ballots they say are causing problems.

DaveSchmidt said:

From the linked article:

The Postal Service specifically signed off on the design of the ballots they say are causing problems.

 I stand corrected, but would like to point out that it was an upper level decision, not the regular employees who work in sorting or the carriers who deliver it.  

Like any business, you’ll get some stupid decisions by people at the top who have lost touch with day to day operations 

Thanks all for the information and advice.

As an aside with regard to the link provided by DaveSchmidt, I note that the New Jersey Globe's editor is David Wildstein; certainly a man of integrity, and worthy of respect.

TomR