If your San Francisco vote-by-mail packet showed up with a long rip down the side this week, you are not alone, and there is a simple explanation. The city's Department of Elections says the tears happened inside U.S. Postal Service sorting equipment, not because anyone tampered with the mail.
The department mailed roughly 500,000 ballots for the Nov. 3 election last week, KRON4 reported. Elections Director John Arntz told SFGATE his office started hearing about torn envelopes on Monday. Photos of slit and partly open packets spread online Tuesday and Wednesday, and some households said several ballots arrived damaged, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
What caused it
In an Oct. 7 advisory, the department said USPS told it the envelopes tore while moving through processing machines. A USPS spokesperson told KQED the packets' thickness meant a small number may have been damaged during machine processing. Once the problem was spotted, the Postal Service switched to handling the rest of the packets by hand. The city has not said how many envelopes were affected, and the Chronicle reported there is no evidence of election tampering.
How to check your packet
Arntz describes the outer envelope as just the package that delivers the ballot. You never reuse it. Carefully open a torn packet and make sure it holds:
- All four ballot cards
- A ballot return envelope
- An insert with voting instructions
If the four cards and the return envelope are intact, you can mark your ballot and mail it back in the return envelope as usual, the department says.
If something inside is damaged
KQED reported that at least some voters found the ballot cards themselves ripped, not just the outer envelope. If any ballot card or the return envelope is damaged or missing, you can ask the Department of Elections for a replacement ballot using the request form on its website.
The department says it is still working with USPS and watching future ballot mailings. Thousands of San Francisco ballots have already been returned, according to SFGATE.