Why are so many mail-in ballots being rejected in Texas?
Only a small percentage of voters in the Lone Star State qualify for mail-in voting. But election workers are reporting that hundreds of applications are being rejected. Not necessarily because the voter doesn’t qualify but because of changes made to the process in Senate Bill 1.
The bill was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in September and this March’s primary is the first major election under its new rules.
RELATED: What's in Senate Bill 1?
Part of the new requirements is that absentee voters are required to include a state identification number, like a driver’s license or a partial social security number, on their application. Those numbers must match what is in the voter’s record for it to be approved.
According to the Texas Tribune, part of the problem elections officials are running into is the numbers don’t match because they don’t have a record of both numbers for each voter. Also, voters don’t know which number is attached to their record.
According to the Tribune, the secretary of state’s office is working to update its records with both driver’s license numbers and social security numbers for most voters. But some county election officials were not aware they had to check the state database instead of their own internal records.
All of this has left election workers scrambling to validate mail-in voting applications ahead of a big primary.