This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. Sign up for Votebeat's free newsletters here.
Election Day pollbooks in Pennsylvania’s Chester County omitted the names of third-party voters, which could force up to tens of thousands of people there to cast provisional ballots in Tuesday’s municipal elections.
Pollbooks are the lists of registered voters that pollworkers use to check in voters at the polling place. The county said it is sending supplemental pollbooks to its 230 polling places, but until they arrive, it said, registered voters whose names aren’t in the pollbook will have to cast provisional ballots or come back later.
“Chester County Voter Services will conduct a formal review to determine how third-party registered voters were omitted from the poll books and will take action to ensure this error does not occur again,” the county said in a statement.
There are roughly 75,000 third-party or unaffiliated voters registered in Chester County.
Here is what voters using a provisional ballot need to know:
Provisional voting carries more risk of rejection
When a regular ballot is voted at a polling place, it is fed into the precinct’s tabulator and retained in the ballot box; once the tabulator accepts it, that is the end of the voter’s interaction with the ballot. At that point, the voter’s selections cannot be removed from the final count.
But for provisional ballots, there are additional steps that must occur before the ballot is counted.
Provisional ballots are a failsafe voting method intended when there is some question about a voter’s eligibility, and there are additional steps the voter and election officials must properly execute for the ballot to be counted.
Voters must place their provisional ballot in a secrecy envelope, and then place that envelope in an outer envelope. The outer envelope includes several fields that must be filled out by the voter and election official.
A Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis found that ballot rejections for missing information in these fields, which do not relate to the voter’s eligibility, have been increasing in recent years.
Hoping to cut down on such rejections, the Department of State announced a redesign of the outer envelope earlier this year, starting with today’s election. Adoption of the new envelope by the counties was voluntary. A spokesperson for Chester County said it is using the new version.
What to do if you are asked to cast a provisional ballot
If you are casting a provisional ballot, be sure to place your ballot in the secrecy envelope before placing it in the outer envelope. Make sure you fill out all of the information on the outer envelope marked to be filled out by the voter.
Pay close attention to where it directs you to sign the envelope. Missing signatures are one of the most common reasons provisional ballots have been rejected. Be sure the appropriate poll worker also fills out their required sections on the envelope before you leave the polling place.
After you have finished voting with the provisional ballot, the poll worker should hand you a receipt with a number that will allow you to track your ballot. The county board of elections will hold a hearing in the coming days to decide which provisional ballots can be counted. Check with your county election office after Election Day for details on the meeting.
More information about provisional ballots and how to track them can be found on the Department of State’s website.
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.