‘No ballot, no vote’

Students struggle with mail-in ballots during 2024 election

By Sarah Knowlton     11/12/24 10:31pm

Brad Joiner has requested three mail-in ballots from his home state of Georgia — one for the 2022 midterm elections, another for a runoff that same year and one for the 2024 presidential election.

“The first time around, I got it seamlessly. No problem, my vote was counted,” said Joiner, a Sid Richardson College junior. “But the second time around, with the runoff, they took too long to send it to me. I got it the day before [it was] supposed to be counted … I thought that was frustrating, so I made sure to request [a mail-in ballot] very early on for this cycle, but they basically just never sent it.”

Ricardo De Quevedo, a resident of Laredo, Texas, said that he was registered to vote in his home county and wanted to receive a mail-in ballot.

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“I’m not registered in Harris County. I’m registered in Webb County,” said De Quevedo, a Lovett College freshman. “I had already registered there before coming here, so I just didn’t want to go through that whole process of re-registering.”

Although he sent his application for a mail-in ballot on time, he didn’t receive a ballot until Election Day, De Quevedo said.

“I mailed my application … on Oct. 15, and they said that within a week I should have received the mail-in ballot,” De Quevedo said. “It did not come within a week. It took until the day of the election that I received it.”

Meanwhile, Baker College sophomore Francesca Robert said she had issues claiming a mail-in ballot from her parish in her home state of Louisiana. 

“I called my parish voter’s office, and the lady I spoke with told me I was not eligible, even though the website said that I was. She then asks around and ... gives me an email address to send the [mail-in ballot] form to,” Robert wrote in an email to the Thresher. 

“Ten days later, I still had not received my mail-in ballot, so I decided to call them again,” Robert continued. “This time I spoke to a different lady [who] said the email address I sent my form to was invalid. I resent my form to the new email address she provided, and it took another week for my ballot to arrive.”

Ben Leebron, a Pennsylvania resident, said he faced a problem with his  address when he tried to request his ballot, a full month before Election Day.

“On Oct. 4, I requested a mail-in ballot to Duncan College,” Leebron, a Duncan senior, said. “I was checking the mail room every day. I checked my [delivery] status. It said out for mail, but nothing had happened. I called the Pennsylvania board of elections a few days before the deadline to request a mail-in ballot.

“They told me it should have been sent to my mom’s house in Pennsylvania, which was weird, because I gave them my Duncan address,” Leebron said. “So then I called my mom, and there was no ballot there.”

Leebron said that because of the mistake with his address, he was not able to vote. 

“I requested a second ballot, and then a few days after I requested the second ballot, my party sent me a reminder to mail in my ballot … which means the board of elections had my address at Duncan, and then I never got a ballot,” Leebron said. “I called the board of elections the day of the election, asking, ‘Is there anything to do?’ They were like, ‘No ballot, no vote.’”

Joiner said that he tried to find his ballot, with no luck.

“I emailed [the board of elections]. They said it was on the way, but it just never came,” Joiner said. “They gave me a tracking number that didn’t work.”

Joiner and Leebron’s home states of Georgia and Pennsylvania respectively were considered swing states this election.

Still hoping to cast his ballot, De Quevedo said he looked for a way to vote in Harris County.

“My sister sent me an article from the ACLU that [said] if your mail-in ballot didn’t arrive, you could go to a polling station and you could explain to them, and they’ll give you a [presidential] ballot,” De Quevedo said. “I went to Sewall Hall to ask for one, but they said they didn’t have one, and I had to go downtown.”

Karyn Fu, the Sewall Hall polling place election judge, said she encountered several voters like De Quevedo who did not receive their ballots and sent them downtown. 

“I had a number of voters come to me saying they requested mail-in ballots and never received them,” Fu, a Martel College sophomore, wrote in an email to the Thresher. “Many were registered in other counties in Texas, so on election day, they were eligible to vote with a presidential ballot (only for president and vice president). Presidential ballots were only available at one polling location, which was in downtown Houston.”

However, when De Quevedo went to that polling location, he said that he was told that no presidential ballots were available.

“I talked to the county clerk, and she said they didn’t have any more,” De Quevedo said. “She told me, ‘We don’t have it here, but you can go check in this other polling station in another building across the street.’ So I went, and they told me I had no options. They told me, ‘We don’t have that.’”

De Quevedo said that once he found his ballot in the Lovett mailroom, he took it to the post office and mailed it, but does not know if it arrived on time.

Joiner said that he looked for another way to vote, but wasn’t able to find one.

“I didn’t think there’s anything I could do, because I wasn’t able to get back to Georgia for Election Day. I emailed [the board of elections], I asked for any other way for it to be counted. They said I could vote in person, and that just wasn’t really an option,” Joiner said. “That’s the whole reason for requesting an absentee ballot.”

Robert said that because her ballot arrived later than anticipated, she sent it to Louisiana via fax, but is unsure if it went through.

“When I called the parish office to confirm the fax process and request additional forms, the original woman I spoke with answered again and told me I wasn’t allowed to fax it. I told her I knew I could since it stated it on the paperwork I received with my ballot,” Robert wrote in an email to the Thresher. “She then talks to someone else who says I can, and then sends me the forms and information to fax it. I faxed my vote, but I have no idea if it was accounted for or not.”

“I realize that if I hadn’t known my rights as a voter, I might have accepted the incorrect information I was initially given and missed my chance to vote,” Robert wrote.

De Quevedo said that he experienced similar confusion.

“Every single online resource tells me something different, every single person I talked to told me something different,” De Quevedo said. “It’s just really frustrating.”

Joiner said that his experience with mail-in ballots this election cycle made him reconsider where he registered.

“I guess I don’t really trust the mail-in-ballot system anymore, and I don’t think I’m gonna go that direction again,” Joiner said. “If it came down to it, and I wasn’t able to go back to Georgia, I would probably anticipate that and try to register in Texas instead, because I feel like even in a state like Texas where it’s pretty one-sided, at least having a voice to say something is better than just not being able to vote at all.”

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