It sounds like the U.S. Postal Service has some undemocratic sorting equipment. Or maybe the machinery is just old. Either way,  more than 8,000 San Francisco ballot packages were damaged by postal equipment as they were being processed for mailing, the city’s Department of Elections said Friday.  So far, the postal service has returned 5,456 damaged ballot packets to the elections department, and another 3,000 to 5,000 were expected to be returned on Friday, city elections chief John Arntz said.

It’s an unexpected hiccup, particularly for campaigns that are targeting vote-by-mail voters in the November 4 election. The city has 223,958 voters signed up to regularly receive their ballots in the mail, more than half of the 430,689 total registered voters.

Arntz, whose own ballot packet was mangled in the mail, said he didn’t expect the glitch to affect voting outcomes because Election Day is more than three weeks away, leaving plenty of time to get voters new ballots. There are also usually few ballots returned the first week after they’re mailed out. Replacement ballots would start being mailed Friday, he said.

The postal service discovered the problem and is still trying to determine the scope of it, Arntz said. Postal staff will return damaged ballot packets that have not yet entered the mail stream to the Department of Elections.

San Francisco Chronicle

press release from Department of Elections in San Franciso

SAN FRANCISCO, October 10, 2014 – The United States Postal Service has alerted the Department of Elections that some exterior envelopes of vote-by-mail ballot packets were damaged while being processed through postal equipment. The USPS is working to determine the scope of the issue. It has notified all of its units to return any damaged ballot packets that have not yet entered the mail stream to the Department of Elections.

Thus far, the Department has received 5,456 damaged ballot packets from the USPS. For these returned packets, the Department has identified the affected voters and will have their ballots reprinted and mailed this afternoon via first class mail.

For some vote-by-mail ballot packets, the damage was undetected and the USPS has delivered those packets to voters. Voters whose exterior envelopes of packets were damaged but whose ballots and return envelopes are INTACT may vote and return their ballots. Voters should check to ensure that all ballot cards are still enclosed in their packets. Photos of a damaged ballot packet in which the ballot cards and return envelope were still intact and could be used to vote, can be viewed at sfelections.org/images.

For this election, voters who live in odd-numbered Supervisorial districts (Districts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) receive a four-card ballot. Voters who live in the even-numbered Supervisorial districts (Districts 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) receive a five-card ballot. A map showing which districts have a four-card ballot and which have a five-card ballot is available at sfelections.org/ballotcards.

Any voters whose ballot cards or return envelopes are damaged are advised to call the Department of Elections immediately at (415) 554-4375 so that the ballot can be replaced.