Pennsylvania Voters Face Issues with Redesigned Mail-In Ballot Form

The recent primary election in Pennsylvania has brought to light issues with the redesigned form on the outside of mail-in ballot return envelopes, leading to some votes being disqualified due to inaccurate completion. The revamped form, introduced late last year, requires voters to fill in the month, day, and last two digits of the year, with a preprinted “20” followed by the requirement to add “24.”

Despite efforts to streamline the process and reduce errors, some voters still struggled to accurately complete the form, resulting in their ballots being thrown out. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt acknowledged that his agency will be monitoring the vote tabulation to assess the impact of the new design.

Critics of the form, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, argue that the requirement for handwritten dates is unnecessary and disproportionately affects older voters. The ACLU has reported that over 10,000 ballots were disqualified in 2022 due to what they consider to be minor paperwork errors.

County election officials have been grappling with how to handle ballots with incorrect dates, with some counties choosing to count them if the date can be reasonably interpreted. However, others, like Lycoming County, have opted to invalidate ballots with missing or incorrect dates, citing the high percentage of errors on the redesigned envelopes.

Despite the intention to improve the voting process, it seems that the redesigned form has not had the desired effect in some counties. With concerns about disenfranchisement and the impact on voter behavior, election officials are facing challenges in ensuring that every vote is counted accurately and fairly.