Mail Tribune News - Late ballots had some problems

Document text

Late ballots had some problems Some ballots cast in Tuesday's election never made it into the right hands in time for the official count. County Clerk Kathy Beckett said her office received about 100 ballots in Wednesday's mail, too late for them to be counted in Tuesday's election. Mail ballots must be in the hands of elections officials, either at the clerk's office or designated dropoff points, by the deadline of 8 p.m. Tuesday. Postmarks do not count. Beckett said the total of uncounted ballots would have been higher by about 350. But under an arrangement between her office and the U.S. Postal Service, elections workers collected ballots that had reached the main post office in Medford before the deadline. An additional 60 or so ballots could not be counted because voters failed to sign the backs of the envelopes containing their ballots. Beckett said ballots can be processed only after elections workers use scanners to compare voter signatures on the envelopes with those on file in her office. Beckett said if ballot envelopes without signatures are submitted early enough, there's time to call voters and ask them to sign the envelopes. But she said calls are impractical just before the election deadline, when workers are busy with other election tasks. Mail Tribune Copyright �  The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA