Update 6/2, 2:50 p.m.:
The D.C. Board of Elections is allowing some voters to cast a PDF ballot by email, at-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman announced. Voters who requested but haven’t received an absentee ballot can email alaso@dcboe.org and copy esilverman@dccouncil.us. The ballots will be emailed to voters who request them, voters can then fill them out, scan them, and return them over email.
Original:
YaVonne Boyd, a consultant who lives in Columbia Heights, likes to vote in person. But after her husband had a case of the flu earlier this year that turned into bronchitis, they decided to play it safe. “I actually enjoy going in to vote, but I just don’t want to be around people right now,” she says.
There are 20 vote centers across the city where Washingtonians can vote in person, but the D.C. Board of Elections has encouraged all residents to vote by mail-in ballot in the June 2 primary. Boyd followed suit, requesting an absentee ballot on April 30. She says she hasn’t received it yet.
A number of people voiced similar concerns Friday in the Greater Petworth Facebook group. While some said they had no trouble at all, at least 17 users said they or their spouse had not received a ballot they had requested.
Kayla Bemis says she has requested her ballot three times with no luck. She sent the first request nearly a month ago, while her husband received his within a week.
This year’s primary — which is generally tantamount to the general election in heavily Democratic D.C. — is especially competitive in Ward 2, which has eight candidates running for the seat vacated by Jack Evans amid an ethics scandal, and Ward 4, which includes Petworth, where Bemis lives. Brandon Todd, who is gunning for his second full term on the council, faces a tough challenge from Janeese Lewis George, a former assistant attorney general in Attorney General Karl Racine’s office. The outcomes of those races have the potential to shift the ideological balance of the D.C. Council.
There are also primary races with multiple competitors looking to unseat incumbents in Wards 7 and 8. (At-large Councilmember Robert White is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination, and there will be a competitive election in November for the second open at-large seat).
The deadline to request an absentee ballot was on May 26, and returned ballots must be postmarked no later than June 2.
So, what should you do if you haven’t received your ballot yet? Rachel Coll, a spokesperson for the D.C. Board of Elections, says it may still be on its way.
The office is sending out its last round of ballots on Saturday, and applicants who met the May 26 request deadline should receive them by Election Day, according to Coll. “[It’s] totally possible it’s still out there,” she says.
If you have questions about the status of your ballot, Coll says you can email your full name, date of birth, and the address where you requested the ballot be sent to dcabsentee@dcboe.org or info@votesafedc.com, or call the Board of Elections at 202-741-5283.
Both Boyd and Bemis received confirmation emails, but noted that the Board of Elections tracking system says it has no record of their applications.
Coll says the office has had some trouble updating the tracker and that the requests very well may be in the system. She reiterates that emailing or calling is the easiest way to find out.
She also says sending multiple requests, like Bemis did, creates duplicates that the Board of Elections has to delete. It’s possible that a request could get deleted altogether in the process, but “that hasn’t happened,” according to Coll.
The Board of Elections received a huge influx of requests in March, which took some time to comb through, but Coll says they don’t currently have a backlog of applications.
She explains that the discrepancy in how long it has taken for people to receive their ballots — even within the same household — has to do with how the office divides up request: based on the way people requested them, whether through the Vote 4 D.C. mobile app, mail, or another method. To date, she says the office has received between 85,000 and 87,000 requests.
She adds the Board of Elections did not receive physical ballots until early May, so residents who requested in early March had to wait longer to receive them.
Once they send the final round of ballots out on Saturday, voters should receive them no later than Monday, Coll says, though there could be lag times that are out of the office’s control. Residents in Ward 8 have reported a general issue with mail and packages arriving late or not at all — and a group of residents is suing the Board of Elections, arguing that the issue, in combination with other changes to voting procedures, violates the Voting Rights Act.
Coll says voters who do not receive their absentee ballots can still vote in person, and vote centers will be offering curbside assistance, protective equipment, and limiting how many voters are inside at a time.
But some say they might sit this one out if they don’t get their absentee ballot.
“I’m a little bit torn, because I do of course want to vote and I had done everything I thought I could do to try to do that safely from home,” Bemis says. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if that’s gonna work out. I don’t know exactly if I will go in person, if I’m willing to do that. It’s a hard decision to make.”
More:
DCision 2020: Your (Pandemic) Primary Voting Guide
Is This Primary A Fight For The Soul Of The D.C. Council?
