Greene, Washington counties to print year on existing mail-in ballot envelopes
Mike Jones
Greene and Washington counties are going to print the final two digits of the year on their existing surplus of mail-in ballots for the Nov. 5 general election.
The decision to salvage those envelopes and print the “24” in the open slots on the envelopes was prompted by a recent state Department of State requiring counties to print the entire year where voters must write the date on the exterior of their mail-in ballots.
Greene County Elections Director Joe Lemley said he plans to request a variance from the Department of State to print the final two digits on the mail-in ballot envelopes rather than over-ordering and throwing away excess materials at the end of the year.
“I can’t buy in bulk and change it every year,” Lemley said. “I couldn’t every year order ahead for (the year) and then it would be garbage where we couldn’t use it again.”
He is now working on a format so they can run the blank envelope through their office printer so the final two digits will appear.
“How do you prepare for all of (the voters) who want it and then have that supply thrown out?” he said.
Printing envelopes that include all four digits of the year means they can only be used through one election cycle, which will result in countless unused envelopes being discarded each year.
“When we order our mail-in and absentee envelopes, we’ll always have to have the year,” Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said. “So it could be wasteful … because estimating how many envelopes you’ll need in an election, it’s not easy.”
In Washington County, Ostrander said they had more than 6,000 unused mail-in envelopes from the primary, so they now will ask their vendor to print the 24 at the end so they can be used. The cost will be around $500, which Ostrander said is cost-effective and will help them as they order more mail-in ballots with the number expected to surge ahead of the upcoming Nov. 5 election.
“Everyone was surprised by the low turnout we had in the 2024 primary, so that’s why we had about 6,000 extra because of what I estimated the turnout would be,” Ostrander said. “We’ll order more than we need.”
Fayette County Elections Director MaryBeth Kuznik said Thursday that she plans to order new ballots every year due to the time-consuming nature of using a printer to fill out the last two digits.
The state redesigned the mail-in ballot instructions and envelopes before the April primary in an attempt to limit the number of mistakes voters typically make – such as not signing the envelope or forgetting to write the date on it or misdating it. As part of that, the 20 in the year was already filled out, meaning voters only needed to write the day’s date and the final two digits of 24 in the slot for the year. However, many elections offices across the state noticed that voters were bypassing the final two digits, meaning the ballots would not be counted since they must be signed with the correct date.
According to the Washington County elections office, out of the 286 rejected ballots, 185 of them were signed but either had no date, an incomplete date or an incorrect date, meaning they could not be counted due to state election laws. Washington County received a total of 11,471 mail-in and absentee ballots in the primary.
Ostrander said the state is trying to ensure all of the ballots, envelopes and instructions all look the same no matter the county.
鈥嬧��”We want the date to look uniform. That’s the issue with the counties taking their surplus and putting the 24 on them because the Department of State is in charge of designing the envelope. They had to approve the 24 with how it looked. It wasn’t as simple as putting a stamp on it,” Ostrander said. “That’s why we went with our original printer. They came up with a template and they printed the originals and they showed it to the state. It’s been approved.”
Mail-in ballots are expected to go out sometime in mid-to-late September.