Nearly 18,000 mail-in ballots rejected in state primary

FRANKLIN, Mass. — Amanda Ottaviano does not feel comfortable voting by mail. The Wrentham mother said she’s worried if she doesn’t vote in person on Nov. 3, her vote might not count.

“I’m definitely concerned they’re going to find missing ballots, that the ones that are sent in aren’t going to be counted,” Ottaviano said.

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing more people to rely on mail-in voting in the general election, and if the state primary election is any indicator, most ballots will be counted in November if they arrive on time.

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Nearly half of the 1.7 million ballots cast in the Sept. 1 primary election were mailed in, according to data from the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Of the 814,013 mail-in votes, 17,872 were rejected, the data shows. Most of the rejected ballots did not count because they were late, officials said. Other reasons included failure to deliver, no signature or envelope, or the voter had already voted.

“I think every city and town clerk was frazzled by the time the election got finished,” Newton’s City Clerk David Olson said.

Olson said 27,000 of the 32,000 Newton votes cast in the Sept. 1 primary – around 84% – came in the mail.

Olson added that ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 will continue to be counted through Friday, Nov. 6. He’s still urging his voters to get ballots in early.

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“I think our biggest problem was that on [Primary] Election Day, we had well over 2,000 ballots dropped in our drop box,” Olson said. “We’re expecting the same thing to happen, that most people will wait and drop off their ballots closer to the election.”

Franklin’s town clerk resigned in Sept. after 3,000 ballots sat uncounted on primary night.

“This election season has been the most challenging election cycle in my career…Any oversights that I made…are due to the many challenges this election has brought upon myself,” Teresa Burr wrote in her resignation letter to the town.

Franklin Town Administrator Jamie Hellen said the oversight was a simple mistake with no malicious intent.

“This has been a very difficult year for a lot of town clerks,” Hellen said.

The 3,000 votes did ultimately count after the town notified state officials about the mistake, Hellen said.

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Hellen said preparation, and having the right amount of staffing, will be key in November.

“It’s just about making sure we have the systems in place and we’re doing the right things necessary to make sure we’re all ready to go,” Hellen said.

Franklin is opening a drive-thru for voters to drop off ballots between Oct. 9 and Nov. 2. Ballots for the general election are being delivered to cities and towns this week, Secretary of the Commonwealth Spokesperson Debra O’Malley said.

“Once the cities and towns have the ballots, they will immediately begin packaging them up and mailing them to voters. We expect all local clerks to have their ballots and materials by Monday at the latest,” O’Malley wrote in an email.

The final day to register to vote is Oct. 24.

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