Thread by @NPR

At least 550,000 absentee ballots have been rejected in this year's presidential primaries, an NPR analysis finds.

And that's almost certainly an underestimate since not all states have made the information on rejected mail-in ballots available. trib.al/pAYyDvn

Experts said first-time absentee voters are much more likely to make the kinds of mistakes that lead to rejected ballots.

That raises alarms for November, when tens of millions of more voters are expected to vote by mail — many for the first time. bit.ly/32k6TCo

Most absentee or mail-in ballots are rejected because:

• required signatures are missing
• signatures don't match the one on record
• the ballot arrives too late bit.ly/32k6TCo

In more than half the states, Democrats are in court fighting to extend mail-in ballot deadlines and to waive witness and notary requirements.

They also want voters to be allowed to fix errors before their ballots are rejected. bit.ly/32k6TCo

In Florida's primary, a political scientist found that Black and Hispanic voters voting by mail for the first time were twice as likely to have their ballots rejected than white voters voting by mail for the first time. bit.ly/32k6TCo

These differences will likely be exacerbated in November when turnout is much higher.

"If you have 1% of maybe up to 6 million votes, you're talking tens of thousands of votes that potentially are going to be rejected, and they are not rejected evenly across the electorate."

That could not only affect the outcome of the presidential election but other races as well.

In 2018 in Florida, Republican Rick Scott beat incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson for the Senate by just over 10,000 votes. bit.ly/32k6TCo