Albuquerque voter gets absentee ballot returned in the mail
Albuquerque voter gets absentee ballot returned in the mail
The USPS is currently investigating what happened
Updated: 10:32 PM MDT Oct 28, 2016
Kirsten Swanson
General Assignment Reporter
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —What should be an easy, convenient way to vote in this year’s general election, is making some New Mexicans nervous after reports that some absentee ballots are not making it to the county clerk – and instead being returned to sender.
Leon Faubion, 82, voted absentee in this year’s general election.
“It’s just a lot more convenient to do it that way,” Faubion said.
He put his ballot in the mail on Monday, but was surprised to find it back on his doorstep on Wednesday.
“The first thing that goes through my head is there’s probably a lot of others out there,” Faubion said.
He took the ballot straight to the post office to mail it again, where he learned what reportedly happened from a clerk at the counter.
“They had apparently received quite a number of them,” Faubion said. “He said that the reason was that their automated system was reading their return address as a forward address.”
Faubion also called the Bernalillo County Clerk’s office to report what happened.
“Time is of the essence with this sort of thing and how many more of them are going to get caught up in the system,” Faubion said.
Officials at the clerk’s office are looking into how many ballots might have been marked “returned to sender,” but a spokesperson didn’t have an exact number Friday afternoon.
The U.S. Postal Service is also investigating. Spokesperson Peter Haas sent a statement to KOAT, saying in part that, “…the vast majority of ballots are being delivered to elections officials without incident."
He also said supervisors are reiterating to their employees to make sure marked ballots go to the county clerk’s office and nowhere else.
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