One Greenbelter visited the News Review office to share their concern about a returned mail-in ballot the day before the election. Others tracking the status of their mail-in ballots sent from Greenbelt are concerned they still haven’t been marked as “received” weeks later. A representative from the Prince George’s County Board of Elections says that sometimes mail can take a while and all ballots postmarked by election day will be counted.
On the afternoon of Monday, November 4, a Greenbelt resident received a piece of mail that disturbed him. On the eve of the contentious election, his daughter’s absentee ballot had been returned, with a “Return to Sender; Insufficient Address; Unable to Forward” note stuck to the official envelope. Lawrence Anderson was shocked. If it had arrived the day after the election rather than the day before his daughter would have been disenfranchised, he said. His daughter is currently in India.
Maryland’s State Board of Elections website states that mail-in ballots must be postmarked on or before November 5 and placed in a dropbox or hand delivered to the local board of elections by 8 p.m. on election day. On Tuesday morning Anderson placed the returned ballot in a drop box for his daughter.
At the Prince George’s County Board of Elections, L. Hall told the News Review that Anderson’s daughter’s ballot in the general election had already been counted on October 29 and only one ballot had been issued to her. The returned ballot was likely from the special election back in August, she said. Still, an election envelope marked undeliverable is cause for concern. Anderson expressed particular concern that a returned ballot could be used by a losing candidate to declare voter fraud.
People can track their mail-in ballots online at voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/VoterSearch. More than one Greenbelt resident who mailed their ballots from the Greenbelt post office did just that and became concerned they had not been marked as received or counted.
Another Greenbelter, Vicki Cheeseman, mailed her ballot from the drive-up mailbox at Greenbelt post office on October 14 before heading to Europe, “in case anything happened.” She was back in time for election day and concerned about its fate, since it still wasn’t marked as received, let alone counted. Her ballot status online remains “Ballot sent.”
“It’s a little frustrating,” Cheeseman told the News Review. “This is the first presidential election I can vote in since getting my citizenship.” Cheeseman was able to speak with someone at the election board who told her that if it was mailed on October 14 she probably should expect it to have been processed by now but that they do have a lot of ballots there and are “backed up.” They suggested she call Greenbelt post office to see if they can find it. Instead, Cheeseman went to the Community Center to cast a provisional ballot.
Nelson Gibson was another Greenbelter casting a provisional ballot on Tuesday. Gibson’s mail-in ballot, like Cheeseman’s, had not been marked received in the online tracking system. Gibson also placed his ballot in the outdoor drive-up mailbox at Greenbelt post office, doing so on October 11.
Asked if voters should be concerned if their mail-in ballot hasn’t yet been received or counted, Hall said, “not necessarily. Sometimes they take longer than normal to get here.” As long as they were postmarked by election day they will be counted, said Hall.