{"id":4887,"date":"2020-06-05T15:57:20","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T15:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/?p=4887"},"modified":"2020-06-07T19:38:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T19:38:21","slug":"vote-by-mail-how-did-it-work-what-can-be-fixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teanecktoday.com\/blog\/elections\/vote-by-mail-how-did-it-work-what-can-be-fixed\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote By Mail — How Did it Work? What Can Be Fixed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Covid-19 Pandemic has upended many of the ways we conduct our lives.\u00a0 In the May municipal elections, polls were replaced with envelopes.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts, not all envelopes were given the same treatment.<\/p>\n

Worse, still, it’s impossible to know how many envelopes did not arrive.\u00a0 It’s not as if you can just count what didn’t show up.<\/p>\n

In an effort to find out what worked and what didn’t, I requested information from the Bergen County Board of Elections, as to what ballots arrived and what didn’t. The staff and administration at the BOE have been helpful and worked hard to help explain the system.\u00a0 They expressed a profound amount of concern for ensuring the system runs as smooth as possible and that every vote is counted.\u00a0 They do a tremendous amount of work under very strict rules and tight time-frames.<\/p>\n

Changes in the systems created issues<\/h3>\n

It seems that NJ has a new interface between two independent systems, which created some hiccups in reporting and coordination.\u00a0 The County Board of Elections system feeds information into the State Voter Registration System (SVRS).\u00a0 I spoke with the head of the County system as well as the head of the State system.\u00a0 That integration, to put it mildly, is not seamless.<\/p>\n

Areas for focus:<\/h2>\n

Two problematic areas which require more review are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Ballots which disappeared<\/li>\n
  2. Ballots which were rejected<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How many ballots disappeared?<\/h2>\n

    <\/p>\n

    By definition, it’s hard to tell.\u00a0 Several reports have surfaced where one spouse sent in a ballot that arrived, but the other spouse’s ballot never did.\u00a0 More still, where both ballots didn’t arrive.<\/p>\n

    How do you tell and what to do, if your ballot just never made it?<\/h4>\n

    At www.DidTheyVote.com<\/a>, you can see see all of our Registered Voters and the status of their VBM ballot.<\/p>\n

    The maps linked below represents the most accurate, up to date data, available from the State SVRS system.<\/p>\n