Today is final day to request mail-in ballot in Pa.
Today is the final day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot, and as expected, Democrats are far outpacing Republicans in the number of people using that method to vote.
Across Pennsylvania, voters have requested nearly 1.4 million such ballots as of Friday with Democrats holding more than a 2-to-1 advantage over Republicans and unaffiliated party members.
Their return rate has also been superior, both statewide and in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties, according to state Department of State and local statistics.
Pa. mail-in and absentee ballots
Total Requests – 1.4 million (61.2% returned)
Democratic – 965,043 (63.6% returned)
Republican – 289,586 (58.9% returned)
Independent – 142,589 (49.6% returned)
Fayette mail-in and absentee ballots
Total Requests – 9,926 (66.2% returned)
Democratic – 7,386 (70.3% returned)
Republican – 1,965 (56.6% returned)
Independent – 574 (45.8% returned)
Greene mail-in and absentee ballots
Total Requests – 2,590 (74.2% returned)
Democratic – 1,826 (77.7% returned)
Republican – 648 (68.1% returned)
Independent – 116 (52.6% returned)
Washington mail-in and absentee ballots
Total Requests – 21,145 (61.8% returned)
Democratic – 14,573 (67% returned)
Republican – 4,830 (52% returned)
Independent – 1,742 (45.9% returned)
But while mail-in and absentee applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. today – either through a voter’s county elections officer or at vote.pa.gov – the completed ballots do not have to be returned until 8 p.m. Nov. 8 on Election Day. County elections officials are urging anyone who still has a ballot that they still need to return to drop it in the mail immediately or bring it back to the elections office as soon as possible.
“Don’t anticipate putting your ballot in the mail Nov. 7 and expecting it be in our hands Nov. 8,” Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said. “And that’s because of the way the mail (distribution) works now.”
She also cautioned voters to follow instructions as issues with how the ballots are filled out or the condition in which they’re returned could cause it to be “defective” and the vote not counted. Ostrander said 52 ballots are undated and now segregated while awaiting a court ruling on whether they should be counted, while six were unsigned and will not be tallied. In other unusual cases, voters have returned ballots using a primary envelope or placed multiple ballots from several family members into one envelope, meaning none of them will count.
Washington County elections workers are not reaching out to voters with defects so they can “cure” the ballot problems, while Fayette County’s office is calling or mailing people to let them know they can correct errors with dates or signatures.
“The elections board made the decision to reach out to the ones with errors (either) by mail or phone, if they have (a phone number) listed on their voter registration,” Fayette County Elections Director MaryBeth Kuznik said. “They must come into the office in person with some sort of identification to ‘cure’ the ballot.”
She said 98 ballots in Fayette County have “some sort of error” that are being segregated while they await legal challenges. Six of those had no signatures and 22 were undated, but the remaining ones had other issues, including many that had the incorrect date attached – such as Nov. 8 for Election Day – rather than the date the voter submitted the ballot.
“It’s always safer for voters to follow the instructions,” Kuznik said.
But state and county elections officials are also trying to combat a falsehood put forward by 15 state Republican legislators – including outgoing state Rep. Mike Puskaric of Jefferson Hills – that more than 240,000 ballots were sent to unverified voters.
Ostrander explained that an “unverified voter” is likely someone who requested a ballot using a nickname or who may have forgotten to add a suffix in their application, such as junior or senior. There is a two-step verification process that could raise a red flag, she said, forcing the county to send out a letter asking the voter to respond verifying his or her identification in order for the vote to count. The voter has until Nov. 14 to make the verification or the vote will be discarded, according to the state Department of State.
Ostrander said they sent out 255 such letters and have received 56 responses so far, although that number is expected to climb as more people verify their identities.
“If we don’t get the letter back by the deadline, we don’t count it,” Ostrander said.
Meanwhile, it’s still unclear how long it will take for all mail-in and absentee ballots to be count across the state. Pennsylvania election code does not permit counties to begin tabulating the mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day, although they must work continuously until the job is finished if they are receiving specific election-related funding from the state through a recently-passed law.
Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Leigh Chapman said last week that it could take several days before results in close races are known due to the high volume of mail-in ballots. Ostrander said she expected Washington County will wrap-up the bulk of its counting on election night, while Kuznik said it could take Fayette County longer than usual.
“We don’t know how fast this canvass will go,” Kuznik said. “It’s possible that polling place results will come in first. It’s a phenomenon (with mail-in ballots). No party’s doing anything fishy. We won’t know on election night who won in the county.”
Greene County officials previously said they did not know how long it would take to count the ballots or when they would be able to release results. Interim Elections Director Judy Snyder said she did not have information on how many defective ballots Greene County has received, and she did not elaborate on whether or not they would be contacting voters allowing them to fix such errors.
“We follow Election Code regarding curing of ballots,” Snyder said in an email.
There is nothing mentioned in the state’s Election Code specifically about curing defective ballots, although there has been litigation over some counties doing so. The state Supreme Court was deadlocked on the question in a recent opinion, which sent the issue back to a lower appellate court’s ruling allowing counties to contact voters to let them cure their ballots if they so choose. More litigation on that issue is expected to follow the election.