Oops: Butler County may have lost thousands of ballots

According to a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, Leslie Osche, chair of the Butler County commissioners, has called for the USPS to investigate what appear to be thousands of lost ballots. Only 24% of the 40,000 requested ballots have been returned to the county (with the next lowest return rate in PA being Fayette, at 50%), and a recent influx of calls has made it clear that the ballots are not arriving any time soon.

Initially, they suspected it might simply be a delay with the Post Office, but decided to take action on Tuesday to ensure voters still had multiple options. Butler County Bureau of Elections Director Aaron Sheasley publicly disclosed the problem at a commissioner's meeting on Wednesday morning.

This included mailing new ballots to voters living in the county and overnighting ballots to those living out of state (e.g., college students). WPXI reports on options for voters whose ballot may have gone missing, including a statement sent to them by Butler County officials, reproduced here:

“Over the last week and a half the Bureau of Elections has received thousands of calls and emails from voters saying they did not receive their mail-in or absentee ballots. The postal service is maintaining daily contact with our Elections Bureau and is aware of the situation. We can confirm that our elections bureau mailed out approximately 40,000 ballots and nearly 21,300 have been returned, either by mail or by in-person delivery. Butler County’s primary focus now is on providing voters who may not have received a ballot with multiple options to obtain a ballot and vote; and on recording the ballots that have been returned, so that voters can see that their ballot was received on the votespa.com website. We expect to complete the scanning to show receipted ballots in the next 48 hours. Those who have not received their ballot have the following options:

1. PREFERRED VOTING METHOD: You may come to the Bureau of Elections and vote in person. You simply need to bring your identification and you will be issued a new mail ballot that you may then vote and turn back in immediately. Your original ballot that was mailed will be voided in the voter system, so that if you eventually receive it and send it back, it would no longer be valid or accepted. The Bureau’s hours have been expanded to: a. 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 28 through Friday, October 30th. b. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, October 31st. c. 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, November 2nd.

2. VOTE AT YOUR POLLING PLACE: You may still vote at your polling place. If you receive your ballot in the mail before Election Day, you may surrender the entire ballot package including both the return and privacy envelopes to the Judge of Elections at your polling place, sign an affidavit, and then vote as normal at your polling place. OR if you don’t have your mail-in ballot, you may vote at your polling place by provisional ballot. These ballots ARE COUNTED, but give the computation board the opportunity to review to be sure they are not duplicated.

3. DELIVERY BY DEPUTY: If you contact us by email at ballots@co.butler.pa.us or phone at 724-284-5308 and let us know that you have not received your ballot and are unable to come into the Election Bureau or go to the polls for health reasons or otherwise, we may deliver your ballot within the County borders, but you must be home to receive it within a scheduled window of time. You will still need to return the ballot by mail or you may drop it off at the Election Bureau ballot turn-in station just inside the door of the Butler County Government Center at the hours listed under option 1.

4. DELIVERY BY MAIL: You may request that we mail another ballot. Or if you are out of state, we may be able to send the ballot by overnight mail. If you are a military, you may be eligible to receive your ballot electronically. Both of these will require a specific phone call or email request."