HOUSTON – Kenneth Thompson is voting in-person on Election Day after all.
The 97-year-old WWII veteran has never missed an election and had no plans to miss Tuesday’s March Primaries.
Thompson has been voting since the age of 21 when it wasn’t required for him to include a driver’s license ID in his voter registration profile. He has also been voting by mail for many, many years.
Mr. Thompson’s daughter, Delinda Holland, said she was doing a final online check on her father’s ballot Monday when she noticed Harris County rejected his ballot.
“I thought, well, I better call to check. Immediately, they told me the ballot had been rejected because of the driver’s license issue,” Holland said. “She said you actually have to flip the flap on the envelope to put the information, and apparently he looked at it closely but did not see the little spot under the flap where to put the driver’s license.”
Mr. Thompson said he thought he had examined the application thoroughly before sealing the envelope because it took a lot to get his application in the first place.
“We got it and looked at it very good and mailed in the ballot and they said underneath the ballot, you had to fill out something else,” the veteran said. “But I didn’t look under the ballot. I mean under the flap to see.”
KPRC2 first met Mr. Thompson in January when his mail-in ballot application was rejected twice due to a new election provision requiring either a driver’s license or social security number, which must match what’s on the person’s voting profile.
It’s part of SB1, the state’s new election law.
Since Mr. Thompson did not have a driver’s license on file, he had to register as a new voter in January. He had received his ballot in the mail last month and quickly mailed it back.
“He mailed the ballot in on the 12th of February, and on the 17th, I called to check to make sure they had received it and they said they had received the ballot and everything was OK,” Holland said. “So, when I called to tell him they had rejected this ballot, he just said I just don’t think it’s worth it anymore. I said you can’t let the new law deter you from voting.”
Isabel Longoria, Harris County’s Elections Administrator said 30% of mail-in ballots and votes are being rejected.
“Ninety-nine percent of people from that 30% has an ID issue,” Longoria said.
Longoria said people can either fill out a provisional ballot or they have until March 7 to fix the issue, if contacted by the county.
Mr. Thompson was able to fill out a correction ballot Tuesday, which will be paired with his original ballot.
“I really believe that his ballot is going to be counted today, and that’s the bottom line -- that he got to vote on Election Day,” Holland said.