The Vote And Voting Problems, Pre-Election Day 2020

CJ from Brooklyn, New York: There’s a lot of talk about it taking longer to count mail-in ballots than in-person ballots on Nov. 3. Is there a reason those ballots take longer to count (other than some are still eligible for counting after the polls close)?

There are a few reasons. First, mail ballots need to be physically removed from their envelopes, signatures need to be verified and the ballots need to be inserted into tabulation machines. By contrast, in-person votes don’t have envelopes, your signature is verified when you check in (if that’s even a requirement in your state) and voters themselves insert their ballots into the machine (all election officials need to do at the end of the night is hit a button and the machine will spit out the results). In addition, as you mention, some states accept mail ballots that arrive after Election Day, and some also have a grace period of sorts in which people can fix, or “cure,” problems with their ballot.

If you’re wondering when mail ballots — or, indeed, all ballots — will be counted on election night, I recommend our new interactive, “When To Expect Election Results In Every State.”

Local journalism helped double the number of voting locations in a Los Angeles suburb.

Less than a week before Election Day, an analysis of county voter data by ABC7 found that Huntington Park was set to have less than one polling location per 10,000 voters while surrounding communities like Beverly Hills and Bell had more than one per 10,000.

“This is what voter suppression looks like. And it’s unfortunate, and it’s heartbreaking that nobody’s talking about it,” vice mayor Graciela Ortiz said.

The two planned locations for Tuesday were half of the number that were available in the March primary, when the vice mayor said some local residents waited about four hours to vote despite the COVID-19 related health dangers.

At first, county election officials told ABC7 that open voting allowed Huntington Park residents to drive to voting sites in other towns. But the vice mayor pushed back, noting that many of her community’s residents didn’t have the luxury of owning a car. Huntington Park is a 97 percent Hispanic community with a median income that is just above half of the statewide median.

Thursday evening — a day after the ABC story — L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis and county officials announced a turnaround.

They will add two additional voting locations on election day in the city of nearly 60,000 people – still less than some surrounding areas, but an improvement for voters.

The two extra mobile voting locations will be at a park and a middle school on Tuesday.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that Minnesota cannot count ballots that arrive after 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. Earlier this month, a federal judge upheld a state court agreement — originally approved in August — that allowed the counting of absentee ballots received up to seven days after Election Day, but state Republicans quickly appealed the decision.

In its ruling, the 8th Circuit wrote that the state legislature, not the secretary of state, had the authority to set election law. It also instructed the state to segregate the late-arriving ballots; it remains to be seen whether they will be counted.