5 instead of Nov. 4, and in Ohio voters were falsely told that they can send in absentee ballots as late as November 14.
According to Jonah Goldman, an election protection spokesman, some states including voters in California, Colorado, Virginia, Florida, Ohio and other places have not yet received their absentee ballots. Many of these states have a backlog of registrations and have failed to mail out absentee ballots in time. In New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Florida reports says that registrations have not been added to the database due to understaffing of election administration workers. These backlogs could mean that new voters may not get on the rolls.
Voters are reporting problems with registration status in states like Louisiana and Texas that experienced natural disasters. Galveston County election officials advised displaced voters to avoid Election Day problems by taking advantage of early voting or by casting an absentee ballot. However, officials stopped short of creating “super precincts†which would have allowed Galveston’s 187,000 registered voters, many who have been displaced, to vote at any county precinct on Nov. 4.
Victims of recent hurricanes aren’t the only voters who find that their location might prevent them from voting. Electionline.org, also a project of the Pew Center on the States, reported yesterday that even some U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan may not get to vote because they received the wrong type of ballots.