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Dauphin County will allow voters to correct mail-in ballot errors. Advocates hope more will follow.

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Dauphin County will allow voters to correct mail-in ballot errors. Advocates hope more will follow.

Sep 12, 2024 | 7:10 pm ET
By Ian Karbal
Dauphin County will allow voters to correct mail-in ballot errors. Advocates hope more will follow.
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(Capital-Star photo)

Dauphin County’s elections board has enacted what’s called “notice and  cure” policy — basically, if someone incorrectly fills out a mail-in ballot, the county will return it to them and give the voter a chance to correct their error.

Dauphin is now one of at least 32 Pennsylvania counties with a notice and cure program, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. But The ACLU and other voting rights advocates are hoping even more counties adopt such programs. However, with less than two months to go until the 2024 election, it’s unlikely that many more counties — if any — will enact such a program before November.

Still, voting rights advocates are counting the Dauphin County policy change as a victory, and part of a longer effort to ensure that errors made on mail-in ballots don’t lead to votes being discarded.

“It’s huge. It’s huge for Dauphin County. It’s huge for the state,” said Marian Schneider, senior voting rights policy counsel at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “What we’ve seen in other counties is that … about two-thirds of voters who get contacted about an error actually correct those errors. So it’s a good thing for voters.”

County notice-and-cure policies require election boards to notify mail-in ballot voters of any errors found on their ballots when they’re received by the county and give them a chance to correct them. This is a separate process from voting provisionally, because corrections are made to the original ballot.

A provisional ballot can be filled out at a polling place if a voter is concerned that their vote will not be counted because of issues like mail-in ballot errors or voter eligibility. If the voter is found to in fact be eligible to vote, and that they haven’t already submitted a correctly filled-in ballot, it will be counted.

In the case of Dauphin County’s new rule, according to Chris Spackman, the Dauphin County director of registration and elections, incorrectly completed ballots will be returned to voters if they’re received by the Saturday before the election. That way the voters have a chance to correct any errors, like leaving off a date or not putting their ballot in a secrecy envelope. 

Voters whose ballots are received by the county later the Saturday before the election will still be notified if an error is detected and have the chance to cast a provisional ballot.

Still, Spackman urges voters to fill out their ballots carefully.

“Try to make sure you don’t have to avail yourself to this policy,” Spackman said. “With that said, this is one way to make sure that if you do accidentally make a mistake, you will be afforded an opportunity to correct it.”

County by county policies

Pennsylvania counties have a fair amount of autonomy when it comes to administering elections. In the absence of statewide law, in many cases, counties can decide how to handle particular issues, like what to do with incorrectly filled out ballots.

When it comes to notice and cure specifically, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that counties were not required to tell voters about mistakes on their ballots. So counties decide themselves how or whether to notify voters whose mail-in ballots contain errors.

As it stands, at least 32 counties have notice and cure provisions, at least 13 counties notify voters of errors on their mail-in ballots, but don’t offer chances to cure and at least 12 counties do neither, according to the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Sherman said the organization is still waiting to receive more information from the remaining 10 counties.

Voters who make errors and are not awarded a chance to cure their ballot, or who think they may have made an error, can always vote provisionally at their polling place.

Danitra Sherman, the ACLU’s deputy director of advocacy and policy, hopes a few more counties may enact notice and cure policies before the election, but she recognizes it will be a challenge, especially with so little time before the election.

“Seeing what happened in Dauphin, there’s definitely reason to be hopeful,” Sherman said. “But these things need to be decided and voted on like, now.” 

But Sherman’s county by county push is only one part of a multi-pronged approach by the ACLU to ensure that minor errors in mail-in ballots don’t result in votes being thrown out.

The ACLU was part of the Washington County case over voters who weren’t notified of mail-in ballot errors, as well as two other voting-related lawsuits.

Following this year’s primary election, the ACLU and the Public Interest Law Center sued Butler County on behalf of two voters who returned their mail-in ballots without the required secrecy envelopes, but who were not allowed to cast provisional ballots. 

The Commonwealth Court ruled last week that they should have been able to vote provisionally and had their votes counted. But it’s likely that the state Supreme Court will rule on an appeal before the election, which could change the outcome.

“At the end of the day, if there’s a mistake happening on a ballot or a mail-in ballot, everybody should have the chance to fix their mistake and have their ballot counted,” Sherman said.  It’s as simple as that.”

The ACLU is also involved in a lawsuit over whether ballots can be discarded because their return envelopes are incorrectly dated. As it stands, the Commonwealth Court has ruled in their favor, requiring such ballots to be counted, but a state Supreme Court decision could overturn that.

Pennsylvania has a no-excuse mail-in voting law, meaning any eligible voter can request a mail-in ballot. The deadline to request a mail-in or absentee ballot is October 29, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Voters with any questions about their eligibility, registration or how to vote by mail or in person should visit vote.pa.gov.