Pennsylvania redesigns mail-in ballots to reduce rejections
Among changes, outer envelope has clearer instructions for writing required date
Mail-in ballot materials for the April 23 primary have a new look that state election officials hope will reduce the number of rejected ballots.
The redesigned materials, unveiled late last year, should help voters avoid errors that could disqualify their ballots. That became even more important with Wednesday’s decision by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals that undated or improperly dated ballots should not be counted.
“It's really about minimizing opportunities for voters to make a fatal error … and also to make the instructions clearer so that voters are less likely to make those sort of mistakes,” Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt said in a recent interview where he discussed the ballot changes before the appellate court decision.
This is the fifth year Pennsylvania has used mail ballots for voters who request them. Schmidt said the state learned from mistakes voters made in previous elections that led to their ballots being rejected.
Ballots can be disqualified for a number of reasons. For the 2023 primary, the Department of State reported that of 597,000 mail ballots statewide, counties rejected 17,000 (about 2.8% of the total). The breakdown for disqualification was: received after Election Day (46.8%), no date on the outer envelope (20.3%), no secrecy envelope (14.9%), an incorrect date on the outer envelope (8.4%), and no signature (4.7%).
Much of attention via lawsuits has focused on writing the date on the outer envelope, a requirement of the 2019 state law (Act 77) that permitted no-excuse voting by mail.
Since 2021, several local, state and federal courts issued opinions on whether the date was needed; some judges said ballots should be rejected if the date was wrong or missing; other judges said the date was merely an oversight, had no bearing on the validity of the ballot and the vote should be counted, citing the 1964 Civil Rights Act as the basis for their reasoning.
But Wednesday’s court opinion, written by Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the U.S. Third Circuit of Appeals, is the final word, at least for now, pending any decisions to appeal.
“The Pennsylvania General Assembly has decided that mail-in voters must date the declaration on the return envelope of their ballot to make their vote effective,” the judge wrote. “[F]ailure to comply renders a ballot invalid under Pennsylvania law.” The appeals court split 2-1 in its decision.
U.S. appeals court: Don’t count undated Pennsylvania mail ballots
The Department of State in a statement released Thursday “believes every vote by a qualified voter should be counted, and we are continuing to work to ensure that is the case in Pennsylvania. To that end, the Department has made significant proactive improvements to mail ballot materials designed to cut down on undated or misdated mail ballot envelopes. … These revisions are designed to decrease the number of voter errors that could cause them to be disenfranchised. Additionally, the Department is encouraging counties to employ processes to provide notice to voters of these errors so that voters have a chance to correct them and ensure their votes are counted.”
DOS said it is “reviewing potential next steps as we analyze yesterday’s court decision.”
New design
With the exception of minor differences, it's the first time all mail ballot materials will have a uniform design. Among the changes:
Blue coloring on the envelope mailed to voters so postal workers can readily see that it contains a ballot.
The secrecy envelope, in which the ballot is placed, has a yellow background with “official election ballot” printed in gray multiple times to discourage voters from writing on that envelope, which could disqualify the vote.
The mailing envelope, into which a voter places the secrecy envelope with the ballot, has purple and gray highlights. Instructions on the back of the envelope clearly mark the spot for the signature and date. The date box includes “20” for the first two numbers of the year so voters will be prompted to write the current date, not their birthdate as some have done in the past.
“Voters, particularly older voters, will sign it and write their birthday,” Schmidt said. “That would result in that vote not being counted. And it's absolutely heartbreaking to be standing there with trays full of ballots cast by registered voters, on or before Election Day, that aren't counted.”
Some counties had expected to mail ballots to voters by now, but the process was delayed while appeals for two U.S. Senate candidates to remain on the ballot went to the state Supreme Court. Both candidates lost their appeals, leaving Republican Dave McCormick and Democratic incumbent Bob Casey unopposed on their respective primary ballots.
Counties expect to mail the ballots soon to people who have already applied for one. The deadline to register to vote is April 8 and to request an absentee or mail-in ballot is 5 p.m. April 16.
Voters can mail the ballots back to the designated county election office or deposit ballots in secure drop-off boxes if offered by their county.
Three of the four counties in the 7th Congressional District provide drop boxes. Lehigh County has five locations; Northampton County added three locations this year, bringing the total to seven; Monroe County, only a small portion of which is in the 7th District, has seven. Carbon County does not offer drop boxes.