Concerns about recurring mail-ballot delivery problems in rural areas and about automatic voter registration that leaves voter rolls filled with people who never cast a ballot were the focus of an April 14 presentation by Lyon County Clerk/Treasurer Staci Lindberg to the Rotary Club of NW Nevada.
Lindberg told members the most reliable way to ensure their ballot is counted is to return it directly to a county polling location or drop box, because recent changes in rural mail service have made it harder for the Postal Service to postmark ballots on time.
She said the Postal Service no longer makes evening pickups at collection boxes, so ballots dropped after about 8:30 a.m. won’t receive a same-day postmark.
“Please bring those back to us, because we cannot guarantee that those are going to be postmarked appropriately” she said.
Every active registered voter in Nevada is mailed a ballot unless they have opted out by submitting a Mail Ballot Preference Form to their county clerk’s office. Lindberg urged voters who don’t want to vote by mail to opt out of receiving a mailed ballot.
“I totally appreciate mail out ballots for anybody that wants one, but there is so much waste in the mail out ballot process and I think it also affects the integrity of the election because we have all these ballots out,” she said.
For those who do vote by mail, Lindberg said a ballot tracking process called Ballot Scout allows voters to track their ballot once it is scanned at the post office. She said the system only works when USPS scans a ballot, but she said the Postal Service does not guarantee consistent scanning or postmarking. She also said many of the delivery problems occur on rural routes now handled by contract carriers, which she believes contributes to inconsistent service.
Lindberg said she has reported more than 200 complaints about things like ballots being delivered to the wrong address, and one instance where a husband and wife received one ballot, but the other was returned to the Clerk’s office as undeliverable. She said has raised those concerns with the Secretary of State’s Office, USPS officials and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
“She is going to take on the fight about trying to hold them accountable,” Lindberg said.
Her other major concern is automatic voter registration at the DMV, which she said makes it harder for counties to maintain accurate records because people who have not voted in years are added to the rolls and often move without updating their information.
“The biggest threat to democracy in my eyes is automatic voter registration,” she said. “We're registering people that will never vote, have no intention on voting, nor do they take the time to figure out who the best candidates are. So that worries me.”
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