ACLU concerned about 2 voter issues in Allegheny County
By: KDKA-TV's Chris DeRose and Royce Jones
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The ACLU of Pennsylvania has asked Allegheny County to take action regarding the potential for two issues involving mail-in ballots for the upcoming election.
Voting rights is one of the big issues in this year's campaign and on Tuesday, the ACLU of Pennsylvania sent a letter of concern over these issues to the Allegheny County Division of Elections Manager David Voye.
BREAKING: We just sent a letter to Allegheny County election officials raising two vote-by-mail issues that could disenfranchise an untold number of voters. The letter asks county election officials to take swift action to address these concerns.https://t.co/K92MM0Y0fU
— ACLU of Pennsylvania (@aclupa) October 25, 2022
The first issue involves a printing error that saw an unknown number of mail-in ballots missing the voter declaration on the outer envelope sent to some voters in Allegheny County. Mail-in ballots returned without a signed and dated voter declaration are considered ineligible and will not be counted.
The second issue involves hundreds of mail-in ballots that were returned as "undeliverable."
The question is: what are county election officials doing to follow up with voters whose ballots were returned?
The ACLU wants the county to look into these two issues and contact the voters who are missing the declaration envelope and ensure that the "undeliverable" ballots have the correct address on them.
"At this point, if anyone has gotten a mail ballot and there is no place to sign your name and put a date, and a little declaration form on the outer envelope, they need to get another envelope or end up voting in person," said ACLU Pennsylvania legal director Vic Walczak.
There's no word yet from the county on whether or not these concerns have been addressed, though we have reached out for comment.
To read a full copy of the letter sent to Allegheny County by the ACLU, click here.