Some voter registration cards destroyed

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Brock Olison was afraid he wasn’t going to be able to cast his ballot in next week’s presidential election after the Mobile County Board of Registrars told him his registration form had been destroyed.

“I called them, and they said lots of registration forms came in bits and pieces from the post office,” said Olison. “I was just really bummed out because it was my first time being able to vote and I wasn't going to be able to. Since there was a deadline, they said there was nothing they could do.”

The Mobile County Board of Registrars said it receives a number of forms that have been separated, torn apart, and ripped. The staff said they do their best to put pieces of the forms back together.

"There were some that came in that were in a million pieces. If there was a telephone number that was eligible that we could read we called the voter to find out the information we needed to put into the computer,” said Board of Registrars chairperson Pat Tyrrell.

The Board of Registrars said if you're a registered voter and your form was lost or destroyed, you can still participate in next weeks election.

 “The only thing that voter can do is go to his voting poll precinct, his name will be on a active list on the roster or inactive list or the supplemental list,” said Tyrrell/.

“That voter can do an update form and vote on the machine or he can go to his new precinct if he has moved and do a provisional ballot and complete an update form.”

Fortunately for Olison, there was enough of his application to piece it back together.

The United States Postal Service responded with this statement :

“Each day the Postal Service picks up, processes, and delivers millions of letters and packages. While we are generally very proud of the manner in which the mail is processed, it is disappointing to recognize and accept that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, occasionally mailpieces may become damaged in processing. Without an opportunity to review the registration forms, we are unable to determine how these mailpieces may have been damaged in the system.”

--- Debra Fetterly, USPS Spokesperson, Alabama District