Meanwhile, a tiny number of noncitizen votes is a national scandal. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Friday, October 2

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Andrew Wyrich · Newsletter Editor

When New Jersey admitted that an error had led to fewer than 400 noncitizen votes, it was wall-to-wall news. But hundreds of thousands of mail ballots nationwide were rejected in 2024 over minor, technical issues — in one case, because voters didn’t write their mother’s maiden name on the envelope — according to a Democracy Docket analysis. And the legacy media shrugged.

Reporter Jim Saksa dives deep into the data and explains how this striking imbalance in reactions points to a larger failure in the public debate over voting access — one that helps President Donald Trump in his anti-voting crusade.

This is the kind of in-depth reporting you’ll only find at Democracy Docket. Check out the story below.

See you next time.

A few noncitizen votes are a scandal. But thousands of rejected ballots are business as usual

By Jim Saksa · Reporter

The frenzy from the political press and the GOP after New Jersey announced in July that fewer than 400 noncitizens voted in 2023 ignored a much more consequential number: 72,000.

That’s the number of ballots rejected across just six states during the 2026 primaries over technical issues, according to a new analysis by Democracy Docket that examined state data on rejected mail ballots. And over 360,000 were tossed nationally in 2024 over similar issues.

Those votes went uncounted over minor mistakes.

If a tiny number of noncitizen votes compromised the integrity of New Jersey’s elections, the exponentially larger number of ballots from valid voters that were rejected due to strict interpretations of the rules — often enforced in ways that err on the side of suppression, rather than inclusion — surely did even more damage. And yet, unlike New Jersey’s error, the issue has spurred no investigations, no calls for new legislation and no impassioned denunciations from lawmakers.

READ THE WHOLE STORY

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