The statewide rejection rate of mail-in ballots was more than 12 percent in this year's primary — six times what it was in the last midterm year in 2018. Election officials now say they've found a way to bring that rejection rate down.
After a spike in mail ballot rejections due to confusion over new ID requirements this spring, Travis County began including an educational insert to bring attention to what was needed. The inserts appeared to have the desired effect, and the county saw its rate drop from about between 7 and 12 percent in the March primary to under 5 percent by the May primary runoff.
. By the primary runoffs, the rate was down to less than 4 percent rejected, according to data from the secretary of state’s office. “We had under a 1 percent reject rate,” Callanen said. “We were back to where we belonged, which was a dance of joy.” While those rates were down from the sky-high 20 percent and 18 percent rates in the Republican and Democratic primaries respectively, they were still far higher than the county’s less than 0.3 percent rejection rate in the last midterm primary in 2018, when just 135 ballots were tossed.The new ID requirements, passed last year by Republicans under Senate Bill 1, added scrutiny to a state that already has some of the strictest requirements in the nation for voting by mail.
Following the success of inserts in other parts of the state, Harris County election officials said this week they are including a new insert about voter ID requirements with their mail ballot applications, and adding voter ID information to an existing insert with mail ballots, for November's general election.
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