Ada County election postcards confuse mail-in voters. Here’s what went wrong
Voters in Ada County who already requested their absentee ballot for November’s general election may have received a postcard telling them they hadn’t yet. The reason? A programming error, Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane says.
About 30,000 voters were just sent postcards notifying them that they weren’t registered for the November elections. That left some of them confused.
The error stems from an online ballot request form that created problems earlier this year. When Idaho decided to hold the May primary entire by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic, it introduced an online absentee ballot request form.
The form wasn’t quite ready. County clerks weren’t able to access the system to process ballot requests — one reason ballots ultimately needed to be reissued for the primary.
The system also didn’t allow voters to request absentee ballots for later elections. That problem was rectified about two weeks after the request form originally went live, McGrane told the Statesman in a phone interview Thursday.
About 30,000 voters had filled out the ballot request form in those first two weeks. Those are the same 30,000 who just got postcards. McGrane said the cards were intended to alert people who may have thought they were registered to receive absentee ballots in subsequent elections that they weren’t.
“That was our effort to try to notify those voters,” McGrane said. “It was intended to say and to make voters aware that when they requested, they didn’t have the chance (to request later ballots), and therefore if they want to get their ballots mailed to them in November, they need to go on the request form and make that request again.”
The problem? Some of those 30,000 voters had already realized the issue and requested their ballots for November. Then received the postcard telling them they would “not be mailed a ballot” unless they submitted another request.
A ‘confluence’ of problems
The ballot request system would not let officials remove the voters who had already made a second request from the original batch of requesters, McGrane said.
“In hindsight, we should have obviously done a lot more to get that removed,” he said.
And that wasn’t the only problem. A delay in printing and mailing meant that the postcards, which should have landed in mailboxes two weeks ago, instead arrived on Thursday and Friday last week. But the online request form closed at 5 p.m. Friday for the West Ada School District levy election on Tuesday, Aug. 26.
Voters who checked their mail after 5 p.m. Friday and went online to re-request their ballot were met with a message that said they had missed the deadline.
“That was also when the national attention was on the Postal Service as well,” McGrane said, referring to concerns that the U.S. Postal Service is slowing mail right as a record number of voters are depending on the USPS to get them absentee ballots in time for the election.
“It was a confluence of things that just happened all right at the time when a lot of questions were being raised about absentee ballots and other things,” he said.
McGrane apologized to voters frustrated by the problem. He said he wanted to emphasize that there was still “ample time” to request an absentee ballot before the General Election on Nov. 3.
The form will reopen after Tuesday’s election for those looking to request November ballots.
McGrane still encourages people to request absentee ballots for the general election, calling mail the “easiest, safest means to vote.”
Ada County officials expect as many as 75 percent of all voters will vote by mail this year, meaning as many as 170,000 absentee ballots cast.
If you are not sure if you have requested your ballot, you can check the status of your ballot at idahovotes.gov.
How to check your Idaho voter registration and request your absentee ballot
You can register to vote or request your absentee ballot on at idahovotes.gov.
Ballot requests are closed until Tuesday, Aug. 26, but once they reopen, any registered voter can request a ballot. You can also request your ballot by printing out the paper form and submitting it to your county clerk’s office.
208-287-6860
400 N Benjamin Ln, Ste 100, Boise, ID 83704
Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Canyon County Elections office
1102 E. Chicago St. Caldwell, ID 83605
208-454-7562
Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
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