Tag: Election 2020

If an unsolicited mail ballot application arrives in the mail, should you use it?

A reader recently contacted the Wyandotte Daily to ask about a mail-in ballot application she received from a third party, not from the Wyandotte County Election Office.

The applications sent out this week are from a national organization that is trying to get out the vote for the November elections. This particular effort was targeted at getting women and minorities to vote in the upcoming elections, and one of the organizations related to this effort thinks increasing turnout among these groups will be the key to winning the fall elections.

For the general election, Wyandotte County will offer advance voting in person, advance voting by mail and Election Day voting in person.

Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby responded to our questions that the third-party ballot applications could be terribly confusing to some voters, especially those who are permanent advance voters and those who have already applied for a ballot by mail.

“This application form was sent by an organization that has no official connection to any election office in Kansas,” Newby wrote. “The Secretary of State is aware of this outside effort. The (Kansas) Secretary of State’s office approved the application form AV1 but does not have the authority to control the content of any accompanying letter or to whom these are sent.

“Voters can expect many such mailings from others in the coming weeks, including the political parties, major candidates and others,” Newby stated.

“This one comes from outside Kansas,” Newby wrote. “It is sent indiscriminately to all voters, including many who have already requested a mail ballot as well as permanent advance voters who will automatically receive a mail ballot. In some instances, other organizations have given voters the wrong county election office address.

“Some will ask voters to return their application to the organization on the premise that the organization will forward it to the correct election office,” he wrote. “Voters who send their application back to the sending organization need to be aware that the personal information they provide could be used by that organization for other purposes. Further, the voter has no guarantee that the Election Office will ever get their application.”

Newby had several recommendations for voters:

• Go online to print the Form AV1 on the Election Office website, www.wycovotes.org. Voters can fill it out online but must print and sign it before they mail, email, or FAX it to the Wyandotte County Election Office.
• Registered voter households will receive official mail from the Election Office mid-September that will include three copies of the official Form AV1.
• Send us only one application per voter. Please, do not send duplicate by-mail applications to us.
• Never send a completed application for a ballot by-mail anywhere other than the Election Office.
• Use forms sent by anyone other than your election office with caution. To whom are you providing your personal information? What are they using it for?

More about this mailing

The reader who contacted us received a mail ballot application form from the Center for Voting Information, Washington, D.C. The sender’s address on the mail was from Springfield, Missouri. The application form was already filled out with the voter’s name and address, but not with the signature or driver’s license number.

There was a letter also with the mail ballot application. The letter did not contain any references to political parties or candidates, and did not discuss any political positions.

Included with the application form and letter was a return envelope to the Wyandotte County Election Commissioner’s office and address, and with the voter’s name and address on the sender’s return address. It was a postage-paid envelope.

The Center for Voting Information, according to its website, is “a non-partisan and non-profit organization that works to provide even-handed and unbiased information about candidates and their positions on issues. We also provide voting-eligible citizens with tools and resources to register and vote in upcoming elections.”

The website stated that CVI and Voter Participation Center generated 939,000 registration applications for the 2020 election, and more than 2 million vote by mail applications for 2020.

According to the website, they also do polling and have seen a noticeable upsurge of support from minorities for the Joe Biden campaign after the announcement of Kamala Harris as the vice presidential nominee.

In a Federal Election Commission document, CVI stated it was formerly known as “Women’s Voices, Women’s Vote Action Fund,” and changed its name in 2017. The organization targeted women, millennials and minorities in an effort to raise wages and address economic and other issues, according to the website.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, opensecrets.org, the Center for Voting Information has a political action committee.

CVI did not report any contributions this year, but it reported an independent expenditure of $38,481, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Vendors and recipients included the Pivot Group and Grow Progress.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the $34,481 was an independent expenditure for support of the Joe Biden for President campaign – it was not by the Biden campaign itself. CVI had supported some other Democratic candidates in other areas in past years.

For more information on voting, visit www.wycovotes.org or call the Election Office at 913-573-8500 during office hours.

Voting by mail has been becoming more common at the state level in the past few years, particularly in western states such as Utah, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, said Patrick Miller, associate professor of political science at the University of Kansas.

Some of the states hold the entire election by mail. Until this year, voting by mail often has found a lot of bipartisan support, he said. Republicans in Utah introduced it there, he added. Despite what President Trump may be saying about fraud, there is very little fraud associated with voting by mail, no more nor less than any other form of voting, he said.

“It is, as a general rule, safe and secure,” Miller said.

It’s easy to distort the public perception of voting by mail with comments about fraud as voters are seeing a little different form of voting, he added.

This year, mail ballots are popular in Kansas, as some voters may be trying to avoid crowds and the risk of COVID-19.

The rules on mail ballots change from state to state, he said. Kansas is offering voting in person, advance voting by mail and advance voting at polls. The mail ballots can arrive in the mail at the Election Office after Election Day, he said, and still be valid if they are postmarked by Election Day and received by the Friday afterward.

Sometimes there are people who want to portray the results on election night as the real results and who think the later changes are not real, he said. As the later votes come in, there is a temptation of some people to discredit the process to portray those changes as illegal, he said, when they are not.

This year, with an increase in mail ballots, the results on election night may not be the final results, he said, if the results are close.

“If ballots are postmarked by Election Day they have until the last mail delivery on Friday to arrive at the Election Office,” Miller said.

While it could turn an election night winner into a loser, those votes arriving in the mail from Wednesday through Friday are still valid votes, he said.

“So we may see some delay this year in knowing the election winners,” Miller said.

Traditionally, mail ballots do not favor either party. This year, however, it has been partisan, with Democrats encouraging people to vote by mail, he said, while President Trump has been discouraging it. This year’s trend of seeing Democrats requesting more mail ballots than Republicans is not typical, he added.

“Not every voter who requests a ballot returns it,” Miller said. It’s common in Kansas that about 20 percent who request ballots don’t return it and don’t vote, he added.

This year they are seeing a substantial increase in ballots returned here, he said. Requested ballots that aren’t returned are not fraud, they’re just missing ballots, he said.

In Kansas, if voters procrastinate on returning the mail ballot and still have it on Election Day, they are allowed to go to a polling place while it’s open and hand it to them, he said.

The substantial changes this year with mail voting, he said, are that election results can take longer to know; and that with Democrats requesting a lot of ballots, Republicans may be getting more votes on Election Day. The mail ballots may bring in more Democratic votes.

Another possible change to watch is user error, he said.

“The biggest problem with mail ballots is people do not follow the rules,” Miller said.

Ballots that did not qualify in the primary were those where voters did not follow the rules, did not get the ballot in the mail on time, or waited until the last minute and it took too long to get there, he said.

“The onus is on the voter to make sure it gets to the Election Office,” Miller said. If it takes too long and it isn’t put in the return mail on time, it’s your fault, not the state’s fault, he said. They don’t have to count it if it’s not there.

Another problem that disqualifies ballots is not filling them out correctly, he said. In Kansas, voters have to fill out the ballot and sign the envelope, he added. If voters don’t sign it or sign in the wrong place, it may be a reason to disqualify your ballot as well, he said.

Miller said the best advice for voters is to be responsible, request your ballot early, return it early as soon as you get it and then verify if it’s received. Voters can call the Election Office to see if it has been received, or they can check the Voter View website in Kansas, which lists when ballots are received. In some counties, voters can take their mail ballots to a secure drop-off box, and don’t have to use the postal service to get it back, he said. Wyandotte County allows voters to drop off mail ballots on Election Day at polling places during the times they are open.

“Voters have to be responsible,” he said. “They have to know the rules. The rules for mail ballots in Kansas are different from Missouri and other states.”

States differ about when they need to be postmarked by or received by, he said. In some states, they need to be received by the day before the election.

“In Kansas you’re OK mailing your ballot on Election Day as long as it gets there by the Friday after the election,” he said.

Don’t ask a friend in another state what the rules are, he added. The rules are different there.

One hundred percent of the responsibility of making sure your vote counts is on you as the voter, and it’s your job not to fail, he said.

Will allegations of voter fraud mentioned by the president this year have any effect on voters?

“The biggest thing we know about voter fraud is people are very cynical about our political system,” Miller said. “People think voter fraud exists when they lose an election. They always say the other side cheated.”

A lot of Americans have a knee-jerk reaction to believe in fraud, although not much of it actually exists, Miller said. The few cases they do have are high-profile.

“In reality, they should have a lot of faith in our political system because it does work the majority of the time,” he said. “We can vote safely and just have to do it responsibly.”

“If you are going to vote, you have a lot of options, no matter how cynical you are, and voting by mail is a safe and secure one,” Miller said, “even if you think the whole system is rigged against you.”

COVID-19 has affected the election this year, not just the candidates, but the campaigns, staff and volunteers, he said.

“Voter contact hasn’t stopped, but there is less of it, and it’s being done more cautiously,” Miller said. COVID-19 is an issue a lot of voters want to hear about, and it is interesting to note the candidates who want to talk about it and those who don’t, he said.

Whether the issue is 911 or some other crisis, candidates need to address it at some point, he said. It’s a little different because it’s a pandemic, and that brings challenges.

“If a candidate wants to be successful with anxious voters, they need to engage with the issue at some point,” Miller said.