Some Monroe County voters who requested mail-in ballots for next month's general election still had not received them after the county's printing and mailing vendor ran short of the correct envelopes, delaying one wave of mailings before the backlog was cleared. The New York State Board of Elections is now looking into the matter, even as county officials say the bulk of the roughly 18,000 local mail voters were never affected.
What Went Wrong With the Mailing
According to whec.com, Monroe County election commissioners said the vendor simply did not have enough of the correct envelopes on hand, which held up one batch of mailings. Roughly 7,000 ballots were caught in that delayed batch, though officials noted some of those had already gone out before the holdup was discovered. The rest, they said, have since been mailed. The delay touched multiple ZIP codes and voters across party lines, the outlet reported.
The vendor behind the snag is Fort Orange Press, an Albany-based printing and mailing company that describes itself on its own website as a partner to state boards of elections and one of the nation's leading ballot printing and mailing experts, per the seed reporting from Spectrum News 1. The outlet said it had reached out to Fort Orange Press for more information and was awaiting a response. The New York State Board of Elections said it is aware of the vendor issue and coordinates with local boards to try to ensure timely ballot delivery despite problems originating outside their own offices, the station reported. The state board also noted that each of New York's 62 counties selects its own vendor, and some county boards print their ballot material in-house rather than contracting it out.
County Commissioners Respond
Jackie Ortiz, the Democratic commissioner of the Monroe County Board of Elections, said she would have preferred the ballots be mailed sooner, according to the Spectrum News 1 report. Ortiz also said vendors serving multiple counties can run into trouble when large numbers of voters request ballots around the same time. Peter Elder, the Republican commissioner, said voters have continued returning their ballots despite the late arrival, per the same station's reporting.
Monroe County voters do have options if a mail ballot still has not arrived. The county's report on rochesterfirst.com noted that voters can drop off a mail-in ballot directly at the Board of Elections office, where staff said they are happy to process it on the spot. On Election Day itself, the county will operate 210 locations with drop boxes monitored by election inspectors, and voters may also deliver ballots to their county Board of Elections office or a poll site before 9 p.m. Between Oct. 24 and Nov. 1, voters can likewise bring ballots to an early voting poll site in their county.
Deadlines and the Postal Service Response
Completed ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by the county Board of Elections no later than Nov. 10, according to the seed reporting. The U.S. Postal Service said it is beginning to prepare for processing early and absentee ballots, and it told Spectrum News 1 that ballots entering the mail will be delivered swiftly, with extraordinary measures to move Election Mail kicking in starting Saturday, Oct. 24. Both the Postal Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said they remain committed to the security and sanctity of all mail, including ballots.
Separately, the Postal Service's own election mail guidance recommends that voters not using military or overseas ballots mail their completed ballot before Election Day and at least a week ahead of the receipt deadline, according to about.usps.com. The agency says it handles completed ballot mail as First-Class Mail unless a voter pays for a premium service, and it tries to ensure every returned ballot gets a postmark.
A Vendor With a Recent Track Record Elsewhere
Fort Orange Press has drawn scrutiny beyond Monroe County this election cycle. In Bradford County, Pennsylvania, officials said the company had printed and assembled mail ballot packets on time and placed them in a secure mail loading area by Sept. 25, but had not actually mailed them, according to weny.com. County officials there demanded the packets be sent, and Fort Orange Press began mailing them that Friday. Bradford County said the ballots remained secure and were not compromised throughout the delay, though the reason the packets were not mailed on schedule had not been determined. Officials there added that the Fort Orange Press contract was in its first year, and they may reconsider the vendor relationship going forward.
New York's upstate ballot-printing industry has faced similar questions before. Phoenix Graphics, a Rochester-area firm, was responsible for sending mislabeled absentee ballot envelopes to thousands of Brooklyn voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election, after New York City's Board of Elections awarded it a $4.6 million no-bid contract, according to thecityreporter.nyc. Fort Orange Press itself held a separate $6 million contract that year to print and distribute absentee ballots in Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx, where voters did not report similar issues at the time, the outlet noted.
For now, Monroe County voters who have not received a requested mail ballot can still vote using the drop-off, early-voting, and Election Day options outlined by local officials, with the Nov. 3 and Nov. 10 deadlines standing as the key dates to track.
