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ProPublica: 372,000 ballot applications rejected, 90% of which are duplicates



According to a recent ProPublica investigation, Pennsylvania has rejected over 372,000 ballot applications, mostly because people are sending in duplicate applications.

Many people who voted by mail in the June 2nd primary election checked a box to automatically receive an ballot for the general election. These voters should not submit a separate application as they are already on a "permanent list" to receive a ballot.

Much of this confusion seems to be due to the myriad "get out the vote" movements by NGOs and political parties. David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research in Washington also observed that “States that have large numbers of successful mail voters, pre-pandemic, have educated their voters about this process over decades, and Pennsylvania is trying to do this in a matter of months."

These organizations have been mailing applications to people, presumably in hopes of boosting voter turnout; however, the ultimate result seems to be confusion. ProPublica reports that hundreds of voters have submitted 3 or more applications, with one voter submitting 11. Election officials are reporting call volumes exceeding 911 centers during hurricanes, with Allegheny County working 24 hours a day to process applications. Voters should submit only one application, regardless of how many they receive.

Of course, voters and NGO's aren't the only ones to blame. Allegheny County reported that a contractor responsible for printing the ballots made a mistake that resulted in 28,879 voters receiving incorrect ballots. These ballots are being re-issued and the county expects the corrected ballots to be received the week of October 19th.

Allegheny County voters can check if they're in the affected batch with this online tool

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