Nearly 18,000 Mail-In Ballots Rejected In Massachusetts Primary Election

BOSTON (CBS) – Massachusetts rejected nearly 18,000 ballots that were mailed in during the primary election earlier this month. Many of those votes were mail-ballots.

The Secretary of State's Office said 17,872 ballots were thrown out for various reasons. About 8,000 of them were tossed because they were not received in time to be counted and another 3,000 were discarded because they were missing necessary voter information.

Secretary of State Bill Galvin said those numbers are actually good. "Vote by mail was a success," he said.

The rejected ballots counted for just 1.72 percent of the votes cast in the election.

But some watchdog groups are concerned that the state's mail-in ballot system could be overwhelmed in the November election. "The Secretary can spin it however he likes, but the fact remains 18 thousand votes were not counted," said Alex Psilakis of MassVOTE.

However, Galvin pointed out that his office is already sending out mail-in ballots for the November election., and they're adding more drop boxes. But the biggest change: There's a three-day grace period for the upcoming election.

"As long as it's postmarked by November 3," he said. So, if your ballot gets in by November 6, it'll be counted.