Spotlight-PA on new data showing rejection rates of PA ballots
Carter Walker — one of the leading experts on how PA votes are counted — writes for Spotlight PA on latest data about rejected ballots. Mr. Walker finds that “fewer mail ballots were rejected for voter errors overall in this year’s primary election” but "state data points to a new type of voter mistake affecting ballot rejections. And the way counties have diverged in their response to this error has opened up a new avenue for litigation ahead of November's presidential contest."
Compared with the 2023 primary, counties rejected 9.6% fewer ballots for the kinds of errors that the redesign sought to address: a missing date or signature on the return envelope, an incorrect date, or ballots returned without an inner secrecy envelope. Pennsylvania’s Election Code requires that mail voters place their ballot in a secrecy envelope before placing it in the return envelope. They must then sign and date the return envelope.
But since Pennsylvania implemented its no-excuse mail voting law in 2020, thousands of ballots have been rejected because of procedural errors by voters, such as missing dates and signatures. Courts have gone back and forth on which errors should cause a ballot to be rejected. So far, the divided legislature hasn’t successfully stepped in to clarify the rules.
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