New Jersey mail in ballots are a cluster-f***

In an effort to streamline the mail-in voting process due to COVID-19, the State of New Jersey has actually turned the whole process into a quagmire filled with confusing forms, extraneous required signatures, envelopes galore and enough wasted paper to keep us recycling till the end of time.

I suppose we have a lot of voters registered to our address, so we got more mail than most people.

But I’ve put together a user-unfriendly, step-by-step guide to … well it’s actually a guide to nothing because I still can’t figure it out. But here’s what you can expect to get in the mail if you haven’t already. There are the 42 notices inside the official ballot (only one of which is actually the official ballot).

The rest of these papers are explaining how to USE the official ballot. Sounds good so far, right? Then, there’s the confusing signature option on the back that is to be signed by the “bearer.” But it took me a half an hour of googling to figure out who the bearer actually is? Is it the person who fills out the form? More on this later.