Nampa police report rise in stolen mail. How you can make sure your ballot is safe
The Nampa Police Department reports seeing a rise in mail theft from residential mailboxes at the same time that a record number of voters are requesting their ballots by mail.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, the department said it received a call about a bundle of mail found discarded in a store parking lot.
“Yes, there were some ballots in the found mail, but that did not appear to be the focus of the theft,” the post read.
The mail was returned to its owners.
To cut down on the potential for stolen mail, the department recommends picking up mail quickly, dropping off mail close to pickup time and checking with the U.S. Postal Service about overdue mail. Another tip: Don’t mail cash.
Some voters have had concerns about voting by mail in recent months as news broke that Postal Service delivery had slowed in some areas of the country, something officials have since promised to fix.
Also, President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence that voting by mail can lead to more fraudulent behavior, although the Nampa Police Department said that did not appear to be the goal of the recent mail theft.
If you’ve requested an absentee ballot, you can check its status at IdahoVotes.gov. (Make sure you get that website correct — replacing “.gov” with “.com” or “.org” can take you to a totally different site.) Scroll down to the “Check your voter record” button and put in your information to see if your ballot has been requested, sent or accepted. If you haven’t yet requested an absentee ballot, you can do that at IdahoVotes.gov until Friday, Oct. 23.
You also can reach out to your county clerk’s office if you have any questions. In Canyon County, call 208-454-7562 or email electionsclerk@canyonco.org. In Ada County, call 208-287-6860 or email elections@adacounty.id.gov.
In Idaho, there are several security measures in place to make sure someone else can’t use your ballot. Officials say that requiring voters to request ballots rather than just mailing ballots to every voter helps boost security.
So does requiring your signature on the return envelope. Elections officials compare that signature to the signature they have on file for you, and if they don’t match, your ballot will be thrown out. The bar code on the envelope also must match what is on file for your ballot.
The Postal Service recommends that voters who want to mail their ballots do so at least seven days before Election Day. That means putting the ballot in the mail by Tuesday, Oct. 27.
If you don’t meet that deadline or don’t want to put it in the mail, you can still put your absentee ballot in the drop box outside your county elections office by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Every county will have at least one drop box to put the ballot in. Those ballots are often at the county clerk’s office. In Ada County, you can drop your ballot in boxes in the following places:
- Ada County elections office, 400 N. Benjamin Lane in Boise (next to the driver’s license office)
- Meridian City Hall, 33 E. Broadway Ave. in Meridian
- Boise City Hall, 150 N. Capitol Blvd. in Boise
- Eagle City Hall, 660 E. Civic Lane in Eagle
- Kuna City Hall, 751 W. 4th St. in Kuna
In Canyon County, take your ballot to the Canyon County Elections Office at 1102 E. Chicago St. in Caldwell. There is a mail slot to the right of the front door that voters can access 24 hours a day. You can also hand the ballot to a staff member during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 10:53 AM.
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