34,949 NJ Primary Absentee Ballots Rejected In 2020: Report

NEW JERSEY, - A total of 34,949 absentee ballots have been rejected in this year's presidential primaries, according to a new analysis by NPR.

More than 550,000 were rejected nationwide, topping the 318,728 ballots rejected in the 2016 general election.

Election experts said first-time absentee voters are much more likely to make the kinds of mistakes that lead to rejected ballots. Most absentee or mail-in ballots are rejected because required signatures are missing or don't match the one on record, or because the ballot arrives too late, the report said.

"If something goes wrong with any of this, that's a problem writ large, but it's also going to be one that hits some populations of the United States a bit harder than others, potentially disenfranchises different groups of folks at higher rates," said Rob Griffin of the Democracy Fund, told NPR.

On their website the Democracy Fund noted that with some exceptions, registration and turnout are disappointingly low — and so is voter confidence in election results, particularly at the national level. Voter trust is further eroded by a legacy of disenfranchisement and suppression that continues to this day, as well as by an uneven embrace of effective and efficient voting practices across states and districts.

The group is an independent and nonpartisan, private foundation that confronts deep-rooted challenges in American democracy while defending against new threats, their website said.

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