ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Some Monroe County voters who requested mail-in ballots for the upcoming general election have yet to receive them and it’s due to a delay with the vendor that was hired to print and mail them.
Roughly 18,000 people are signed up for mail-in voting in the county are the majority are not affected by the delay, as thousands of ballots have already been processed and returned but there are still plenty who are.
“I’ve never had a problem, for six years I’ve always got a mail-in ballot and it’s been fine,” says Gene Salesin of Pittsford. But this year, has been a different story, “it said it should be mailed out September 18th when I checked the BOE website,” he recalls but he still hasn’t received it.
“Even if there was a delay, it’s the end of October what the hell is going on?” Salesin wonders.
Both the Republican and Democratic elections commissioners in Monroe County tell News10NBC the vendor did not have enough of the correct envelopes, which delayed one of the mailings.
“In that particular batch, there were about 7,000 or so but again, the thing is some of them actually did go out,” explains Peter Elder, the Monroe County Republican Election Commissioner.
The rest of the ballots have since been mailed, according to officials.
“We don’t necessarily disagree that you have to kind of beef up your inventory when it’s time but at the same time, we want to make sure that we’re de-escalating because we are working with all of our partners, and they have assured us that everything has gone out the door so while we can certainly sympathize and understand, we also ask everyone to extend a little bit of grace for individuals who are working with multiple counties across the state,” says Jackie Ortiz, the Monroe County Democratic Election Commissioner.
The delayed ballots affected multiple zip codes and party lines. It is not too late to request a new ballot if one has not arrived.
If your mail-in ballot does not arrive, you can go to the Board of Elections in person to have one printed, fill it out there and submit it, or bring it home and return it to any polling location on Election Day or during early voting.
Anyone signed up for mail-in voting can also choose to vote in person on Election Day by affidavit ballot at their assigned polling place, but it is only opened and counted if the Board of Elections confirms no mail-in ballot was received.
For more information from the commissioners on mail-in ballots, click here.
The post News10NBC Investigates: Some Monroe County mail-in ballots were delayed, here is what you can do now: appeared first on WHEC.com.
