Nonprofit mails 587,638 erroneous absentee ballot applications to Virginia voters

[Hoodat]

Nonprofit mails 587,638 erroneous absentee ballot applications to Virginia voters

Graham Moomaw   |   August 6, 2020

A misunderstanding of Virginia’s independent cities and counties apparently led a nonprofit voter registration group to mail 587,638 absentee ballot applications to Virginia voters that asked them to send the ballot back to the wrong election office.

The Center for Voter Information said the mishap was an honest mistake mainly affecting voters in a handful of localities that share a name: including Fairfax city and Fairfax County, Richmond city and Richmond County, Roanoke city and Roanoke County, and Franklin city and Franklin County.

~snip~

The mass mailing, which involved more than 2.2 million pre-filled absentee ballot applications statewide, sowed confusion for many voters and local election officials, who quickly sought to inform voters it was not coming from an official government source.  .  .  .

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2020/08/06/nonprofit-mails-587638-erroneous-absentee-ballot-applications-to-virginia-voters/


There are two takeaways here.  First, this effort is being driven by people who do not live in the Commonwealth and are unfamiliar with the rudimentary division between county and city.  Secondly, these applications are pre-filled.  Which means that each ballot will be sent to a predetermined location for each applicant name.  So someone could submit an application on your behalf to be sent to any address other than your home address.  The ballot can then be filled out and signed weeks before the election.  And when you show up on election day to vote, your vote is rejected since their records show you already voted.

[rustynail]

They meant well so we must count every vote.

[Victoria33]

@Hoodat

"...pre-filled absentee ballot applications statewide, sowed confusion for many voters and local election..."

I have already written about this.  It is not against the law for a group or candidate to send "applications for mail ballots" to voters.  I explained this also happened in Texas one year.  The group who sent the applications did not provide the correct information and places for signatures.  I called the Director of Elections for our state and she contacted all counties informing them these faulty applications were coming in and to void them and send a legal application to that voter.

"Pre-filled out".  That means the person's name/address was on the application.  It would not matter if it also shows the candidate's name who sent the application.  Remember, an application is not a ballot.  It is a request to get a ballot.

[catfish1957]

56 POTUS elections in this country's history, and we devolved to this?