A new report indicates that an unusually high number of completed mail-in ballots for the general election wound up in the wrong state.
According to the Associated Press, New Mexico was both on the sending and receiving ends of a few such mishaps.
While a stray ballot ending up in the wrong place will happen during election season, the number of ballots this year seemed to spike.
In addition to New Mexico, election offices in California, Louisiana, Montana, and elsewhere reported receiving completed ballots in the mail that should have gone to other states.
Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark said seven ballots bound for her office were instead delivered to Los Angeles County in Southern California.
Those ballots were redirected, Clark said, but did not arrive on time to be counted. The deadline was 7 p.m. on Election Day.
In addition, Clark said her office received two ballots destined for Los Angeles County and one for Maricopa County in Arizona that she sent back to the U.S. Postal Service.
Nine ballots should have been delivered to other counties within New Mexico.
In addition to the Santa Fe County ballots, Los Angeles County election officials said they also received two ballots that should have been mailed to Torrance County, New Mexico.
That county's clerk, Linda Jaramillo, said she did not recall receiving the ballots from Los Angeles County but expressed faith in the nation's mail service.
Jaramillo said, “There’s going to be a few. You can’t have perfection."
The U.S. Postal Service said in a statement that it had been working closely with local election officials to resolve concerns, but did not address specific questions regarding the misdirected ballots.
Adapted from an Associated Press story by Christina Cassidy, John Hanna, Amy Beth Hanson, and Morgan Lee.
