For the second time in a matter of days, Yellowhammer News has learned of an official New Jersey vote-by-mail ballot being sent unsolicited to a registered Alabama voter.
The first instance was reported by Yellowhammer News on Thursday; the Somerset County, NJ, clerk’s office sent a State of New Jersey ballot to a Dothan, AL, man who has been actively registered to vote in Alabama since 2012. To make matters worse in that instance, the USPS delivered the ballot to the wrong box at a Dothan UPS Store, putting it in someone else’s hands.
Now, Yellowhammer News has obtained more evidence of the Garden State’s mail-in voting woes.
Lisa Lucas of Mobile, Alabama, has provided Yellowhammer News with photographs of an official vote-by-mail ballot she was sent by the Gloucester County, NJ, clerk’s office.
Lucas explained that the ballot was addressed to her divorced name, which she no longer uses, but sent to her current husband’s PO Box in Mobile, which she has never used for purposes of New Jersey voter registration.
Yellowhammer News has confirmed through the Alabama Secretary of State’s records that Lucas is indeed an active registered voter in Mobile County, AL. The last time she voted in New Jersey was 2012 after first registering in that state in 2010, State of New Jersey records show; she registered to vote in Alabama in 2014.
New Jersey, according to its secretary of state, is sending out a ballot via mail to “every active registered voter … at the address the voter is registered.” No request or application is necessary.
The seat of Gloucester County, NJ, is more than 1,100 miles away from Mobile, AL.
New Jersey law does not require voter ID or signatures of witnesses for mail-in ballots.
In contrast, Alabama’s absentee vote-by-mail process features safeguards to ensure the integrity of its process. In our state, voters must apply for an absentee ballot with a photocopy of a valid voter ID. After a successful application, a voter must get the signature of two witnesses or a notary to return an absentee ballot by mail. This statutory process was kept in place for the November 3 election by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, despite a challenge by groups such as the NAACP and SPLC.
Learn more about Alabama’s absentee voting here.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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