By Christina Kristofic | Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Bucks County’s Republican congressman and a group of Republican state legislators say that county election officials’ decision to turn away some people who lined up to apply for mail ballots Saturday was “potential disenfranchisement.”
The lawmakers on Sunday — two days before the deadline to apply for mail ballots — sent a letter to the Bucks County Commissioners asking them to reconsider the county’s policy.
“While there is no question that on-demand in-person mail-in voting is a courtesy provided by and carried out by our Bucks County government, this incident has sent shockwaves throughout our community and is causing individuals to lose faith in our electoral system,” the lawmakers wrote. “This potential disenfranchisement of voters must be rectified so that every eligible voter is able to vote.”
The lawmakers offered to provide “any support or assistance” needed to extend the Bucks County election office hours and broadcast the change in plans. The letter was signed by U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick; state senators Jarrett Coleman and Frank Farry; and state Reps. Kathleen Tomlinson, Joe Hogan, Shelby Labs, Craig Staats and Kristin Marcell.
“After four years of bipartisan urging from our Board of Commissioners, I’m heartened to see Bucks County’s Republican delegation of our state and federal legislative bodies seems to have finally awoken to the need for additional support that the counties of this Commonwealth require to carry out elections in the 21st century,” Commissioners Chairperson Bob Harvie, a Democrat, said in a written statement. “We look forward to reviewing their proposals to increase funding for election infrastructure, in addition to reforming Act 77 by allowing pre-canvassing up to one week before the election and fully funding any new forms of voting.”
On Tuesday, hours before the deadline for applying for a mail ballot closes, Farry and Coleman said in a memo seeking cosponsors that they were going to introduce legislation in the Senate “that will require Counties that choose to offer this service, be required to treat ‘On Demand Voting’ as we do Election Day voting. If you are in line before the posted time of closing, you shall get the opportunity to ‘On Demand Vote.’”
Tomlinson, Hogan, Labs, Marcell and Staats announced they would introduce a companion bill in the House.
“In Bucks County we have seen a staggering increase in what County officials are calling ‘On Demand Voting.’ Our offices have been inundated with calls from voters from all parties, who are showing up to vote ‘On Demand’ during hours posted by the Board of Election, only to be turned away due to a lack of staffing and resources. We have been told that some voters are showing up 2 hours before the posted closing time only to be turned away.”
The legislature does not reconvene until after the election.
Election officials across the commonwealth have for several years requested such changes and Democratic legislators have proposed amendments to the state voting law that would enact them, but Republican legislators so far have rejected them.
Harvie said the county commissioners are awaiting further guidance from the Department of State, but noted that voters have options other than waiting in line for on-demand mail-in ballots. Voters can request a mail ballot online until 5 p.m. Tuesday and have one sent to their residence, or they can vote at the polls on Election Day.
Asked for the Department of State’s stance on how county election officials should handle lines of people who want mail ballots on demand, department spokesperson Geoff Morrow responded with a written statement that said Secretary of State Al Schmidt has visited every county to review their plans for administering the election and emailed county officials last week to “urge them to review their plans to ensure every voter has an opportunity to receive and cast a ballot.”
“Counties across the commonwealth are facing higher than expected turnout to request and return ballots,” Morrow wrote. “Election officials are working around the clock to ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote and wants to can vote.”
Schmidt said in a media briefing Monday that the state had received roughly 2 million mail ballot applications, and 70% of those mail ballots had already been returned. Election officials cannot open the ballots — known as canvassing — and begin counting them until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Harvie said confusion about mail ballots has arisen because “political parties and organizations across the political spectrum have been misinforming voters about what On-Demand Mail-in Voting is and is not.”
Some voters who lined up at the Bucks County Board of Elections Office in Doylestown on Saturday believed they were there for early voting and that it would be like Election Day. Many of them thought that they would be allowed to vote as long as they were in line by the office’s closing time. They were shocked and angry when county election officials told some of them that they would not be able to apply for mail ballots that day.
“On-demand mail-in voting is not ‘early voting,’” Harvie said.
Voters who go to a county elections office on Tuesday are not lining up to vote; they’re lining up to apply for and receive mail ballots.
When a voter submits their application for a mail ballot, a county election official checks the application against state and county records to confirm that the person is registered to vote and hasn’t already voted. The election official then prints the ballot for the voter’s precinct and an envelope with a barcode unique to that voter. The process takes about 12 minutes once a person gets to the front of the line, county officials said.
A voter may choose to fill out their mail ballot in the election office and give it to a county election official. The voter may also choose to take the ballot home, fill it out, and put it in the mail or a secure drop box, or hand-deliver it to a county elections office.
The U.S. Postal Service recommends that anyone who chooses to mail their ballot do so on Tuesday so that it can arrive at the county elections office by the deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots that arrive after the deadline will not be counted.
County election officials will not accept applications for mail ballots after 5 p.m. on Tuesday. They will advise anyone who wants to vote on-demand later this week to go to their polling place on Election Day.
Kim Lyons of the Capital-Star staff contributed
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.
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