BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Mail-in ballot snafus are causing complications ahead of Tuesday’s election.
It’s go-time at clerks’ offices across the state to sort through the onslaught of mail-in ballots. However, some never made it to the right Vermonters, leaving some votes hanging in the balance.
It’s all hands on deck at the Morristown Clerk’s office organizing returned ballots and those lost along the way.
“As you can see, we’ve gotten a few ballots back,” said Morristown Clerk Sarah Haskins.
Haskins says most ballots went to the right residents, but a few came back to her desk.
“These we’re just holding and hope that the voters are going to come in on election day to vote in person, or that they’re going to contact us ahead of time,” said Haskins.
Address errors are usually the root of returned ballots.
When Vermonters move and forget to update their voter registration, their ballots don’t follow them to their new address.
Vermont’s Secretary of State Sarah Copeland-Hanzas says it’s especially common in urban areas where people rent. That can be tricky to sort out.
“It’s a bit of tracking down all of the loose ends that you might come across in order to figure out who has moved and how to remove them,” said Copeland-Hanzas.
She says clerks could be seeing more misplaced ballots than usual this year, and that they can’t do systematic edits of voter information 90 days before an election to prevent voting complications.
With several elections this year, many clerks are in a crunch.
“This was a particularly challenging year for clerks to be able to keep on top of that,” said Copeland-Hanzas.
With just one day before the election, voters who haven’t received their ballot should go directly to the polls.
Haskins hopes they’re willing to do the legwork.
“Even if your ballot didn’t come to you, you still can come and vote on election day,” she said.
If you still have your ballot, be sure to bring it with you to the polls. If you don’t, you’ll have to sign an affidavit verifying you didn’t already vote.