Allegheny Co. Election Officials Still Playing Catch Up After Nearly 30K Voters Receive Incorrect Ballot
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Many voters from Allegheny County who have already applied for a ballot told KDKA they have not received one yet.
So where are they? When will they arrive? And why the delay?
The Allegheny County Board of Elections said it is still catching up from the problem last week when its third-party mailing company caused almost 30,000 people to receive the wrong ballot. The entire mailing process was paused for a week to make corrections.
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Bethany Hallam, Allegheny County Board of Elections member, said "it put everything else on hold because the county wanted to make sure that no one else received an incorrect ballot."
According to Hallam, ballots are back being mailed again as of this week.
"I expect most folks will have their ballot in their mailbox by the end of this week or early next week," said Hallam.
Voters who received an incorrect ballot should toss the old one away and check the mailbox for a new ballot marked with a bright orange stripe.
"Make sure you fill that out and send it back as soon as possible because it means you were one of those 29,000 people who received an incorrect ballot," said Hallam.
There's another group of voters who already applied but have not received a ballot. For some of those voters, the state's online ballot tracker says it was already mailed.
RELATED STORY: Allegheny County Elections Division Launches Search Tool To Determine If You Received Incorrect Mail-In Ballot
That's probably because of another mix-up.
"The date on the ballot tracker is really the date the mailing label was generated for your mail-in ballot," said Hallam.
Almost 400,000 ballot applications have been approved in Allegheny County and about half of those have already been returned, according to Hallam.
Hallam could not confirm how many of those unreturned ballots were involved with the mailing freeze but reassures voters that election officials are working around the clock.
October 27 is the deadline to apply for an absentee or mail-in ballot. You can also still go to the Allegheny County Elections Division headquarters on Forbes Avenue or any satellite locations. You can apply, get approved and submit your ballot right there.
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