Some counties alerting voters to 'cure' defective mail-in ballots
HARRISBURG (KDKA) - Hundreds of mail-in ballots are expected to be defective in this 2022 election, but many voters will not know in advance that their ballots won't be counted in this election.
As KDKA political editor Jon Delano reports, it depends on the county in which you live.
A million Pennsylvanians have already voted by mail, but some of those votes will not be counted, election officials say.
The two most common mistakes are signing and dating ballots.
"It's a ballot that on the back of the envelope, the voter either did not sign or date under the voter's declaration," says Melanie Ostrander, elections director for Washington County.
Voters forget to either sign or date their outer envelope, and then there's the third mistake: so-called naked ballots where voters forget to place their ballot in the first secrecy envelope before placing that envelope in the return envelope.
Under current law, none of these ballots, even if received on time, may be counted.
Delano: "Do you count them?"
Ostrander: "No. According to the law, we are to segregate them."
These rules are the same for all 67 counties, but some counties reach out to their voters to give them a chance to cure or fix their ballots if done before Election Day.
"If the elections office were to cure, they would contact the voter and let them know that their ballot was received unsigned or undated and give them an opportunity to come in and fix the mistake," says Ostrander.
That's what Washington County used to do, says Ostrander, but this year the board of elections – comprised of the three Washington County commissioners – decided not to alert their voters that their votes won't be counted.
"In the past, we have cured ballots, but for this election, we are not curing," says Ostrander.
Washington is hardly alone. Beaver, Butler and Westmoreland counties are also not alerting their voters to defective ballots.
While many counties are not telling voters of their ballot problems, three local counties are alerting their voters to mail in ballot issues: Allegheny, Fayette and Lawrence counties.
Alerting mail-in voters that there is a problem is up to each individual county. Some do and some don't.
"We are reaching out to the voters, letting them know there are issues, and if they choose to come in to correct them, we want to give them that opportunity," says Lawrence County Commissioner Loretta Spielvogel.
"The bottom line is we want to assist in every way that we can to ensure that people have the opportunity to vote."
Lawrence County election officials, along with those in Allegheny and Fayette counties, are calling or emailing their voters to let them know that their ballots might be defective and then give their voters a chance to cure or fix them.
While it's a relatively small number in Lawrence and Fayette counties, Allegheny County tells KDKA they have received 194 unsigned ballots, 357 undated ballots and 683 naked ballots that won't be counted unless voters cure them.
Other counties like Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties are not telling their voters of defective mail-in ballots, but if voters call their county election departments, officials will tell them if their ballot is defective or not.
Some counties will allow their voters to fix the problem, but others will not, leaving voters the only option of voting in person with a provisional ballot.
"They would vote by provisional ballot, and then those would be sent for review by our return board to determine if the provisional ballot could be counted," says Ostrander.
Speilvogel says a uniform state rule for all 67 counties on alerting voters and allowing mistakes to be corrected is long overdue.
"It does make it difficult to not have that uniformity on what to do. Unfortunately, we're in the position that we're in right now," says Speilvogel.
If you voted by mail and think you may have forgotten to sign, date or use the secrecy envelope, call your elections department immediately. Ask them to tell you if they've received and will count your mail-in ballot.
Here is a list of the telephone numbers of area election bureaus:
- Allegheny County Elections Division: 412-350-4500
- Armstrong County Elections Division: 724-548-3222
- Beaver County Elections Department: 724-770-4432
- Butler County Elections Department: 724-284-5308
- Greene County Elections Department: 724-852-5230
- Fayette County Elections Department: 724-430-1289
- Indiana County Elections Department: 724-465-3852
- Lawrence County Elections Department: 724-656-2177
- Washington County Elections Department: 724-228-6750
- Westmoreland County Elections Department: 724-830-3150
