Pennsylvania rejects 372K mail-in ballot applications following primary confusion: report

[SheltieLover]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/521557-pennsylvania-rejects-372k-mail-in-ballot-applications-following-primary?amp

Pennsylvania has rejected over 370,000 applications for mail-in ballots, most of which were duplicate requests, according to a report by ProPublica and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The battleground state's election offices rejected 372,000 requests for mail-in ballots, according to the report. About 90 percent of the denied application requests were duplicates, and one out of every five requests have been rejected.

Snip

The report found that the majority of 372,000 voters whose requests were denied did not realize that they had checked a box to be sent ballots for the general election in November.

In addition, voters have also been confused by unclear or inaccurate information on the state's ballot-tracking website, and by a wave of information from political parties and get-out-the vote groups, according to the report.

More at link.

[Doodley]

1. How can the election officials responsible fuck up so badly something so important?

[BGBD]

2. They didn't

This is an example of the system working just as it should.

Most of these applications are duplicates because the voter checked a box when they requested their primary ballot to also include their general ballot, but didn't realize it so they filled out an application for the general ballot as well. Since they were already getting one ballot, the duplicate request was rejected, as it should have been. Those people still got or will get their mail in ballot.

[Doodley]

4. It was a fuck up when that many people didn't understand what they were supposed to do. Voting

shouldn't be so difficult to understand. You can't blame hundreds of thousands of voters for the poor communication by the election officials.

[BGBD]

8. I can. And it also doesn't matter

Every person who did that STILL GETS THEIR MAIL IN BALLOT. They just don't get 2.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. Are these the ones Trump told to vote twice?

[Sogo]

5. This story is really much ado about nothing.

The system worked as it should, and no one has been denied their vote.

[Tommymac]

6. One was me.

I forgot I checked the November box in the spring, and we moved do I had to change my address with the county.

Well, after updating my address, the county site sent me automatically the state voter registration site, where I was pretty much told to reapply as part of the address change process. There may have been a checkbox to bypass this if you had already requested your ballot but if so I missed it.

I got my ballot and sent it in...but Imagine my confusion because my profile had 2 ballot request's listed...and the DENIED on one really stood out. It took a moment for me to realize what had happened.

No harm, no foul.

Rube Goldbergesque, the system worked and did what it was supposed to do.

[radius777]

7. Dems should just wear a mask and go in and vote.

When you vote by mail there is not guarantee your vote will be counted. In the primaries all over the country there was a good percentage of spoiled ballots (thrown out on technicalities).

Going in and early voting on a quiet day - if one is healthy and able enough to do it - is far better and takes 'stress' off of the mail in system for those who really need it.

[LisaL]

9. I am not sure if you realize this, but by this time vast majority of people

who wanted to vote absentee already requested their ballots, and many already voted.