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A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 17 March 2022
Continued from Front the 187 counties that pro- include personal identifica-
In Texas, a state former vided full numbers to AP tion numbers.
President Donald Trump accounted for 85% of the 3 "I just threw it right in the
easily won although by a million people who voted in trash," she said.
smaller margin than 2016, the primary. Last week, AP Most of the rejected bal-
the trouble of navigating reported that 27,000 ballots lots, according to county
new rules was felt in coun- had been flagged in Texas election officials and the
ties big and small, red and for initial rejection, meaning Texas secretary of state,
blue. But the rejection rate those voters still had time to failed to adhere to the new
was higher in counties that "fix" their ballot for several identification requirements.
lean Democratic (15.1%) days after the primary and The changes were part of
than Republican (9.1%). have it count. But the final the sweeping overhaul to
The unusually high rejec- figures suggest most voters Texas' elections that Re-
tion rate to start America's did not. publican Gov. Greg Ab-
midterm election season The most rejections were bott signed into law in Oc-
is expected to put more around Houston, a Demo- tober, saying at the time
attention on changes to A man passes an early voting poll site, on Feb. 14, 2022, in San cratic stronghold, where that "no one who is eligible
the ballot box elsewhere Antonio. Harris County elections of- to vote will be denied the
in the country. Texas' elec- Associated Press ficials reported that nearly opportunity to vote."
tion was the debut of more 7,000 mail ballots — about Abbott and top Texas Re-
restrictive voting rules the cast ballots under tougher in six battleground states 19% — were discarded. Dur- publicans who champi-
GOP raced to put on the election laws, in part driven that Trump disputed. ing the last midterm elec- oned the changes have
books across the U.S. in by Trump's baseless and The AP counted 22,898 re- tions in 2018, Texas' largest largely been silent about
time for the midterm elec- persistent claims of ram- jected ballots across Tex- county only rejected 135 the high rejection rates.
tions, a push that took par- pant fraud in the 2020 elec- as by contacting all 254 mail ballots. Harris County Abbott's office did not re-
ticular aim at mail voting tion. The rejected ballots counties and obtaining elections officials said they spond to requests seeking
that soared in popularity in Texas alone far exceeds final vote reconciliation re- received more than 8,000 comment, and messages
during the pandemic. the hundreds of even pos- ports. Some smaller coun- calls since January from for Republican Lt. Gov. Dan
At least 17 other states in sible voter fraud cases the ties did not provide data voters seeking help, which Patrick and Republican
the coming months will AP has previously identified or respond to requests, but they attributed to "confu- House Speaker Dade Phel-
sion and frustration" over an also went unanswered.
the new requirements. Republican state Sen. Paul
In the five counties won by Bettencourt, a proponent
Trump that had the most of the changes, said in an
mail-in primary voters, a email that one issue might
combined 2,006 mailed have been that ballot in-
ballots were rejected, a structions printed in dif-
rate of 10% of the total. In ferent ink colors — red for
the counties won by Biden signature, black for identi-
with the most mail-in voters, fication numbers — might
which include most of Tex- have left voters with the
as' biggest cities, a com- wrong impression they did
bined 14,020 votes were not need to provide both.
similarly rejected, which Federal data on discarded
amounted to 15.7%. mail ballots in general elec-
In rural East Texas, Annette tions show few instances
Young voted by mail like of double-digit rejection
usual but received a sur- rates. The outliers include
prising letter a week af- Indiana (14.5%) in 2006, Or-
ter the primary, informing egon (12.7%) in 2010 and
her that the ballot never New York (13.7%) in 2018,
counted because it didn't according to records from
comply with a new state the U.S. Election Assistance
law requiring mail voters to Commission.q

In conjunction with the national holiday Himno
y Bandera (Day of the National Anthem and
Flag), Aruba Today will not be published on Fri-
day, March 18th, 2022. We will resume our regular
printing schedule on Saturday, March, 19th, 2022.