Didn’t receive a mail-in ballot? Plan ahead for November

With several reports of voters not receiving their mail-in ballots ahead of the state primary, residents are encouraged to make backup plans for November’s general election.

Town Clerk Janet Murphy said her office received “a lot of phone calls” from people who had not received their mail-in ballots but said it can be difficult to ascertain why a ballot didn’t arrive because of the nature of voting by mail. She said residents should report missing ballots early and be prepared to take advantage of other voting opportunities, if necessary.

“It doesn’t matter what community or how many you send, there are a lot of people, for reasons we simply don’t know, that don’t get their ballot,” Murphy said. “Don’t wait until the day before to call [to report a missing ballot.]”

The secretary of state’s office said there are myriad reasons why someone might not receive a ballot. Communications Director Debra O’Malley said the U.S. Postal Service could misdeliver or damage a ballot during delivery, a voter may have requested a non-forwardable ballot to be delivered to their home address while traveling or their application may not have reached the clerk’s office.

Primary elections offer an additional wrinkle: if an unenrolled/independent voter checks the box for “all elections” on their application, but doesn’t select either a Democratic or Republican ballot, then the application is treated as an application for general elections only because the clerk would have no way of knowing which ballot to send, according to O’Malley.

Issues in Weston were not widespread, as O’Malley said nearly 1,000 voters cast their ballots by mail.

Murphy said while there were “hundreds of ballots that did not come back to us,” there were many reasons why that may be the case. Along with Postal Service issues, voters may apply for a ballot because the postcard is so easy to fill out, but they then decide to vote in person anyway.

“Sending them a ballot in no way guarantees that we will receive a ballot back,” Murphy said.

The Postal Service also said there are numerous factors that may impact the timeliness of a mailpiece. The Weston Post Office is up to date with its deliveries, including election mail, and there are no delays in Massachusetts processing facilities, a USPS spokesperson said.

Both O’Malley and the USPS said individual reviews of mail and each voter’s situation would need to be conducted to determine the specific reasons for why they did not receive ballots.

Murphy emphasized the importance of having a backup plan if a ballot is not received. Weston will be offering two weeks of early voting at Town Hall for the November election and, of course, voters are welcome to show up on Election Day if their mail-in ballot never arrived.

Voters are encouraged to keep track of their ballots through the Secretary of State’s office by visiting sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/TrackMyBallot.