Officials: Letters Sent To Allegheny Co. Voters Contained Wrong Polling Locations
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Voter turnout in this area could be larger than normal for the Midterms, judging by the number of absentee voters showing up to vote or sending in applications to vote by absentee.
"Absentee numbers are way up. We're going to be up over 20,000," David Voye, acting director of the Allegheny County Elections Division told KDKA political editor Jon Delano on Tuesday.
That's nearly double the last governor's race four years ago.
"Four years ago we had 11,000 apply to vote by absentee," Voye said.
The increased voter interest in this year's November election explains why an Allegheny County mailing SNAFU informing some voters of the wrong address for new polling places could have larger repercussions than usual.
"Normally, two weeks prior to each election we will send a letter notifying all the voters of the change so that they know where to vote," said Voye. "During a mail-merge process, I believe a wrong cell was selected, so these letters that went out contained the correct polling location but underneath it, it printed the address of the old location."
Voye said the county has 33 new polling places in 11 municipalities for this election, but incorrect letters to voters in the affected precincts gave them the correct voting location, but supplied an old, wrong address.
"It does affect a lot of voters," he said.
At least 14,000 households in the county received the letter.
The problem was discovered on Monday.
By Wednesday, 14,000 letters are going out to those who were misinformed. And just as a back-up, on Election Day, officials will post signs at the old voting locations telling voters where the new location is.
"We're going to send letters to all these affected households again. We're reaching out on social media. There's currently a list on our website of all the affected areas. We're reaching out to the municipalities affected. We're reaching out to the campaigns affected," Voye said.
It's an effort to make certain no one has an excuse not to vote on Nov. 6.