In Harris County — home to Houston — election officials so far have sent back to voters nearly 38% of mail-in ballots, citing issues with new state ID requirements:
Weeks ahead of the state's March 1 primary, local election officials in Texas are sending mail-in ballots back to thousands of voters who had turned them in, citing issues with ID requirements created by the state'sIn Harris County — Texas' largest county, which is home to Houston — election officials said they'd received 6,548 mail-in ballots as of Saturday and had returned almost 2,500 — nearly 38% — for correction because of an incorrect ID.
Across the country, several states have cracked down on their vote-by-mail programs following the 2020 election. Texas, however, already had one of the most limited programs. Only voters who are over 65, disabled, out of town or in jail are able to cast a mail-in ballot in Texas. Chris Davis, the elections administrator in Williamson County north of Austin, says he and many other local officials were nervous this problem would be even bigger as voters returned their ballots.
If the problem is caught very early, election officials can send the ballot back to be fixed and then the voter can mail it back again. However, Slattery says a lot of issues with vote-by-mail ballots are identified late in the game. That's because sometimes it takes awhile for the ballot to get mailed to the voter. People also like to take their time with their ballot, he says, so they return it pretty close to the deadline.
"You are not changing anything by adding information to your voter registration record, you are just making it more complete," he says."So that doesn't start the clock over in terms of whether or not you were registered by the deadline for the March primary." Taylor says his office is also recommending that voters provide both their Social Security and driver's license numbers — if they have them — on their application and return ballots, just in case."The secretary's stated open position is that we hope that number is zero," he says."Obviously, we don't want anyone who is eligible to vote by mail to have their ballot-by-mail application rejected, or to have their ballot rejected.