VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — People across Hampton Roads and Northeastern North Carolina are either getting ready to cast their ballot in the November election or they have already done so.
Some people who opted to mail in their vote this year have found issues; their envelopes were sealed shut when they arrived.
News 3 viewer Latifa Al-Hazza from Virginia Beach reached out to me when she saw that she and her mother’s return envelope was sealed.
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She was curious if anyone else in the city was having the same problem. I learned, yes.
Al-Hazza was not the only person this happened to.
It happened to a producer who works at News 3 and lives in Norfolk and another woman in Virginia Beach that we met while talking to voters.
"I do mail-in voting because I've done a lot of travel medicine, and I'm not always where I normally live to be able to vote," said Joule O'Connor.
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She lives in Virginia Beach and decided to take the sealed envelopes to the voter registration office.
"I did just move, so I got the new registration and the new ballot. They said it was just a bad batch of envelopes," she said.
Christine Lewis, the Director of Elections in Virginia Beach, shared this happens every year, especially closer to November.
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Lewis said more storms and humidity can be to blame for envelopes sealing and there have been cases of this happening in North Carolina as well.
"If a voter finds that their envelopes are sealed, they can either open up the envelope, insert their ballot and just tape the envelope shut, or they can request a new envelope from the office," Lewis said.
Al-Hazza said she felt more comfortable requesting new envelopes. The Department of Elections is sending her new ones.
