Why is your San Francisco ballot arriving in a ripped envelope? – Mission Local

Why is your San Francisco ballot arriving in a ripped envelope?  Mission Local

Dept. of Elections is aware of reports of torn ballot envelopes, with the alleged culprit being Post Office machinery Scads of San Franciscans have posted photos on the internet of their torn or crumpled ballot envelopes, which the Department of Elections sent out this month in advance of the Nov. 3 election. Mission Local spoke with or received photos from more than a dozen voters from across San Francisco, demonstrating tears along the sides of the outer envelopes of the ballots. Additionally, a number of Mission Local employees’ ballot envelopes were torn. In some cases, the rip was minor but, in others, it was significant. Neither Mission Local nor the Department of Elections has received a report of an actual ballot being damaged or spoiled — only tears of the outer envelope.

But several voters expressed a sense of unease in a climate in which threats against participatory democracy are commonplace on a national level, if not a local one. John Arntz, the director of San Francisco’s Department of Elections, said he is aware of the reports. “Some envelopes experienced these issues when moving through equipment at the” United States Postal Service, he said. “The USPS indicated that when they observed the issues, they manually processed the remaining packets.” A USPS spokesperson said she could not immediately comment. This article