Mail ballot backfire: Failing to complete the year on Pa.'s newly redesigned mail ballot envelopes

[FakeNoose]

Spotlight PA link: https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/04/pennsylvania-election-2024-primary-missing-dates-mail-ballot-envelopes-department-of-state-guidance/

This article is a few days old, but it points out an issue that could become problem in the November general election....

A design change Pennsylvania officials made to prevent voters from making a disqualifying error on their mail ballots appears to have backfired. The issue — voters failing to write the final two digits of the year on the return envelope — is leading some counties to reject ballots in the primary, despite the state’s new advice to count them.

Last fall, the Pennsylvania Department of State announced it was redesigning the state’s mail ballot return envelope, in part to reduce the number of ballots rejected for lacking a proper date, which is required by law. This year’s envelope has “20” prefilled in the year line and leaves spaces for the voters to fill in the last two digits.

One election director said a “significant” number of voters who returned flawed ballots had not filled in the last two digits of the year, and other election officials around the state echoed that observation. On the Friday before the election, Deputy Secretary for Elections Jonathan Marks sent an email to counties advising them to count ballots even if the envelope lacks the last two digits of the year....

But the department’s emailed advice does not carry the force of law, and counties are making different decisions about whether to count the ballots. Votebeat and Spotlight PA contacted eight counties and found that Philadelphia, Allegheny, and Delaware Counties are counting the ballots, while York, Lycoming, Lancaster, and Snyder Counties are rejecting them. Montgomery County said it would make a decision next week.

- more at link -

Come on Pennsylvania! We have to figure this out before November.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. I don't see how the year is relevant on the ballot envelope

It as scan and upc codes to track it. It's made for one specific year and time period. You can't send last year's ballot, you don't have next year's ballot yet.

For drop off ballots, they know when you dropped it off. There are video surveillance or a monitor in every location I think.

For mail-in ballots there is the post mark. You can't post outside the time between when you receive it, and election day. Fixed window.

This dating issue is a whole lot of Republican hullabaloo.

[LisaM]

2. It seems weird that they can't pre-print the year.

Our ballots arrive a few weeks before the election and must be postmarked by election day, so there's only a short period of time they can even be used. I have never seen one come in a different year from the actual election.