Brooklyn voters report receiving absentee ballots with wrong name on return envelopes

A spokesperson for the Board of Elections is blaming Phoenix Graphics of Rochester, an outside vendor hired by the agency to print and distribute absentee ballots.

News 12 Staff

Sep 30, 2020, 1:12 AM

Updated 1,476 days ago

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Some voters in Brooklyn have reported receiving an absentee ballot with the wrong name on the return envelope.
A spokesperson for the BOE is blaming Phoenix Graphics of Rochester, an outside vendor hired by the agency to print and distribute absentee ballots.
Election lawyer Ali Najmi says he's unofficially heard of this happening for 99,000 ballots across the borough.
Najmi says voters who received the wrong ballot are "worried" and "frustrated."
Williamsburg resident Carmen Rapisarda was eager to fill out her absentee ballot only to find out the return address had a neighbor's name on it who lived on the floor below.
Another person in the neighbor's household also had an incorrect ballot.
These voters say they are concerned about their personal information being out there.
"I wanna know where my ballot is?" said Rapisarda. "And I want to know who has my ballot and if they're signing my ballot by mistake and then it's going to be considered as voided because that's not theirs."
The BOE said in a statement, "We are determining how many voters have been affected, but we can assure that the vendor will address this problem in future mailings, and make sure people who received erroneous envelopes receive new ones."
The BOE says it will send out a second ballot to those who received an erroneous one as well as a letter explaining what happened.
Borough President Eric Adams said in a statement, "The BOE has once again fallen short on this basic task, and for that there must be accountability ... We can and must swiftly right this wrong and encourage in-person voting for all those who are able, strictly adhering to public health guidelines by handing out masks and hand sanitizer, creating outdoor voting booths, and anything else necessary."