Report: Some voting by mail in NJ see glitch -- ballots returned to them

Vote-by-mail ballots are being returned to voters in at least one county in New Jersey, according to the Asbury Park Press.

The report said that machines used by the U.S. Postal Service are having problems reading the destination address because of a design flaw in envelopes sent to voters in Monmouth County, a Postal service spokesman told the newspaper.

Machines are supposed to read bar codes that have the delivery address, the report said, but the official mail-in ballot doesn’t contain any code, so some are being automatically sent back to voters. Monmouth County’s county clerk told the newspaper that the same problem is occurring in a few other counties in New Jersey.

Now that the Postal Service is aware of the issue, however, the report said officials are setting ballots aside so that they’re sent to the election board, but some might still be sent back to voters.

Voters are concerned, the newspaper said, that their ballots won’t be counted as a result of the issue.

The report comes with 26 days left before the election on Nov. 8 and as 36 states and the District of Columbia offer some form of early voting.