Mail-in ballot controversy giving some voters pause

More than 2.3 million Pennsylvanians have applied for mail-in ballots, but not all of them will be putting those ballots in the mail.

Concerns about ballots being rejected or that delayed election results will lead to uncertainty over who wins the presidential election are prompting some voters who have applied for mail-in ballots to have second thoughts about their plan to vote by mail.

Emily Kinkead, who is running unopposed for a state House seat in Allegheny County after defeating the incumbent in the primary, said that 70 percent of Democrats in her district who cast votes in the June primary voted by mail.

By Thursday, more than 17,000 people in her district had applied for mail-in ballots, according to Department of State data.

Kinkead admitted some voters may be having second thoughts about putting their ballot in the mail out of concern that counting mailed ballots will lead to uncertainty over who won the election. In addition, during the primary, many polling locations were closed because elections staff couldn’t get enough poll workers. Those poll closing problems shouldn’t be repeated in the presidential election, so voters will have an easier time voting in person than they did in the primary.

Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said that election officials expect that counties will have “close to all” of their polling locations open for the Nov. 3 election, though some locations may be in different buildings than they had been previously. For instance, polling sites in nursing homes have likely been changed, she said.

Kinkead joined other female elected officials for a social media campaign — in which they posed topless with ballot materials placed in appropriate places — to raise awareness about the need for voters to use secrecy envelopes provided by the election office to avoid having their so-called “naked ballots” rejected.

The state Supreme Court ruled in December that the state’s mail-in voting law requires that voters enclose their mail-in ballots in a secrecy envelope before inserting that envelope into an exterior envelope. Mail-in ballots that aren’t enclosed in the secrecy envelopes, “naked ballots,” won’t be counted, due to the court’s ruling.

Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam was the mastermind behind the naked ballots social media post.

Hallam said that whether people vote in-person or by mail, she’s focused on trying to help voters understand the process so their votes count. She said she applied for a mail-in ballot. But she doesn’t plan to use it.

“I’m taking my mail-in-ballot to the polls, getting it voided and voting in-person,” she said.

To get a mail ballot voided at the polls, the voter must bring the entire ballot packet, including the secrecy envelope and the exterior envelope, according to the Department of State.

While some voters may be having second thoughts about voting by mail, Democrats, in particular, have been encouraging voters to apply for mail-in ballots for months, so it would be confusing and difficult to launch a large-scale campaign to dissuade them from using them, Hallam said.

“Let’s make sure you’re doing it right” if a voter is voting by mail, she said.

Having the mail-in ballot voided at the polls isn’t the only option for voters to hand-deliver their mail-ballots.

ALTERNATIVE DELIVERY

Voters in all counties can hand-deliver their mail ballots at the county election office. But hand-delivered mail ballots cannot be brought to the election office by anyone other than the voter, according to the Department of State.

Also, in Philadelphia and 15 other counties — Allegheny, Berks, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Clinton, Delaware, Elk, Erie, Lancaster, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton and Tioga — voters can deposit their mail-in ballots in drop boxes.