Voting explainer: In many states, there's a process to fix an error with your ballot
Ballot rejections are often the result of relatively minor voter errors. That's why about half of states have a process in place to help voters fix their mail ballots if they do make a mistake.
Many Americans are unfamiliar with how elections are run. And in recent years, purveyors of false claims have taken advantage of that lack of knowledge to sow doubts about certain aspects of the voting process.
In response, NPR's voting team is offering a series of explainers on some of these election topics. This is the first. You can find all of our stories here.
During big U.S. elections, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots are typically thrown out and left uncounted. In 2020, for instance, more than 560,000 ballots were rejected (that's nearly 1% of the total).
Experts say ballot rejections are largely the result of
