RICHMOND, Va. -- As early voting will begin in Virginia Friday, roughly 6,000 Richmond voters should be receiving new return envelopes for their absentee ballots after a mix-up with the initial ones that were sent out.
The Richmond Registrar's office said while there was no issue with the ballots themselves, the return envelopes did not have prepaid postage on them -- which is required by state law.
Registrar Keith Balmer said the mistake was made by a third-party vendor who sent out the ballots and envelopes and it was noticed on Monday.
"In talking to the vendor, we had had them send out a letter to all of the 6,000 voters who got the absentee ballots, apologized for the confusion, and also included in that letter a prepaid return envelope with the prepaid postage stamp on it," said Balmer, who said his office also sent out a tweet about the issue. "Those letters went out on Tuesday. So, by the time people start to see this on the news, they've already started to receive them."
F. Cary Jackson, III, was among the residents who received the incorrect return envelope and said he noticed something was amiss when he was reading the instructions to send his ballot back.
"I received all the information in the mail, properly filled out the ballot in front of my witness, and was going through the procedures to seal it up and send it in. And on this statement of instructions here is the last instruction. It says 'seal envelope be inside the return envelope, no postage is required.' And being the detail-oriented kind of guy that I am, I looked on the actual return envelope and where the stamp is supposed to go it says, 'postage required, post office will not deliver without proper postage.'"
Jackson said he is concerned about how many people who got these envelopes did not realize the mistake and sent their ballot into the mail without a stamp.
Balmer said anyone who did do that, should have it returned to their address because there was no postage on it and they can use the correct envelope that is being sent out.
"Or you can utilize any of our drop boxes which go into effect on [Friday], here at the Office of Elections, at City Hall, and at Southside Community Center," said Balmer. He said anyone with questions (or if they paid for the postage themselves and want a refund), can contact his office and they will work with them.
Jackson added he was concerned about how the office went about alerting the public to the mistake and said he does not use Twitter. Balmer said his office will utilize broader outreach in the future.
Balmer added the third-party vendor only handled the initial distribution of the 6,000 ballots and anyone who requests an absentee ballot this election cycle will get it from the registrar's office.
The last day to request an absentee ballot is Fri., Oct. 28.
