From: januarybaybee@gmail.com   
      
   NBC News / Updated Sept. 1, 2020   
      
   Do not open until Election Day:   
   State laws will delay counting mail-in votes in Trump-Biden race   
      
   In 14 states — including some battlegrounds — officials can't even start   
   authenticating early mail-in ballots until Election Day, much less begin   
   tabulating them   
      
      
   WASHINGTON — The nation's election officials have been warning for months   
   that the sheer volume of ballots sent by mail will delay this year's general   
   election vote count.   
      
   But there's another reason results are likely to be later than usual this   
   year: Some states lag in how they handle mailed ballots before the tabulating   
   ever starts.   
      
   A mail-in ballot cannot be counted until election officials verify that it was   
   returned by a registered voter. The ballot is in an unmarked envelope, which   
   is mailed inside a larger outer envelope with a place for the voter's name and   
   signature. The name    
   and often the signature must be checked against a voter registration database   
   to verify the ballot's authenticity.   
      
   If the ballot isn't signed or the signature doesn't match what's on file, the   
   voter can be contacted to resolve the discrepancy. All of that takes time.   
   Once verified, the ballot itself, inside the unmarked envelope, is set aside   
   until the counting    
   begins.   
      
   A timeline from the federal Election Assistance Commission, which was set up   
   after the chaotic 2000 presidential election, notes that states with long   
   experience in handling large volumes of mailed ballots begin to verify them   
   about 20 days before    
   Election Day. In 35 states, the process starts early, and in 12 of those   
   states, election officials can begin checking the validity of mailed ballots   
   as soon as they're received.   
      
   "If your goal is to know as much as possible on election night, being able to   
   process them in advance is absolutely going to be important," said the   
   agency's commissioner, Ben Hovland.   
      
   Kentucky's secretary of state, Michael Adams, told the House Homeland Security   
   Committee last week that for the first time, election officials were allowed   
   during the June primary to start the processing early.   
      
   "It took a good week for us to get all the ballots counted, but it would have   
   been even longer without that," he said. The state plans to do the same for   
   the general election, starting the process Sept. 21.   
      
   But in 11 other states, including the presidential battlegrounds of Michigan   
   and Pennsylvania, election officials can't even start the process until   
   Election Day. And in three other states, they can't begin until the polls   
   close.   
      
   During Pennsylvania's primary in June, mail-in ballots were still being   
   counted a week after the election. Pennsylvania's State Department, which   
   administers elections, is urging the state Legislature to act quickly to allow   
   the processing to begin three    
   weeks before this year's general election, a proposal endorsed by Gov. Tom   
   Wolf, a Democrat.   
      
   Giving states more time for processing wouldn't solve the problem of ballots   
   that arrive too late, by far the main reason mail-in ballots are rejected.   
   During Michigan's primary this month, for example, about 60 percent of the   
   mail-in ballots that were    
   rejected came in after the legal deadline.   
      
   A longer processing window gives voters a chance to fix their mistakes,   
   cutting down on the number of ballots that can't be verified.   
      
   "That is, of course, one of the many reasons why all of this should be   
   happening before election night," said Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the   
   Federal Election Commission.   
      
   Once mail-in ballots are verified, a second issue comes into play. They often   
   take longer to count, especially when voters fail to follow instructions about   
   how to fill in blanks to indicate their choices. Small bipartisan groups   
   assemble to examine    
   disputed ballots, trying to determine voters' intent.   
      
   "There are states where that will be fought ballot by ballot," Potter said.   
      
   Rick Pildes, an election law expert at New York University School of Law, said   
   lawsuits are sure to follow unless local canvassing boards resolve the   
   disputes in a similar way.   
      
   "There will be litigation if it turns out that states end up treating these   
   ballots differently in different parts of the state, assuming it's   
   consequential enough," he said.   
      
   Election administrators and legal experts have a consistent message. They urge   
   voters to cast their ballots in person whenever possible or to request and   
   return their mail-in ballots at the earliest possible date.   
      
                                                        ==============   
      
   PLAN  YOUR VOTE:   
      
   https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/plan-your-vote-state-by-state-g   
   ide-voting-by-mail-early-in-person-voting-election/index.html   
      
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