Pennsylvania redesigns envelopes for provisional ballots to cut down on rejections
Pennsylvania election officials on Monday announced a redesigned provisional-ballot envelope that they hope will lead to fewer ballots being rejected for technical errors.
“Improvements to envelope design might seem like a small thing, but it has a huge impact on the ability for Pennsylvanians across the commonwealth to have their votes counted,” said Seth Bluestein, a Republican city commissioner for Philadelphia, which worked with the Department of State on the new design.
Philadelphia plans to use the new design in its November municipal elections. The state also consulted election officials from Berks, Greene, Butler, and Mercer counties.
Provisional ballots are meant to be a fail-safe for voters at the polls, to be used when there are questions about eligibility or whether someone has already voted. Each one is placed in a separate envelope, giving election officials a chance to verify that the ballot should be counted before it is added to the tally.
https://penncapital-star.com/election-2025/pennsylvania-redesigns-envelopes-for-provisional-ballots-to-cut-down-on-rejections/
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If you arrive at your regular precinct or neighborhood polling place on Election Day, and if something goes wrong, you can still vote on what's called the "provisional ballot." That's what this is about ... so that nobody is sent away from their poll without voting.
It's a good thing that Pennsylvania is careful to make it possible for everyone to vote, as long as we can show a photo ID and prove our permanent mailing address. It won't matter if your name was dropped (accidentally or on purpose), you can use the provisional ballot and vote anyway.
BUT a lot of the controversy in Pennsylvania isn't over the provisional ballots. The controversy is over the much larger number of mailed ballots, because some are being disqualified or otherwise refused in red counties for stupid reasons.
#1 The voter forgot to sign the outside envelope
#2 The voter signed it, but it doesn't look like the signature on file
#3 Well OK, they signed it, but they forgot to DATE it
#4 They dated it but it's the WRONG DATE. (Maybe they wrote their birth date, or something else.)
#5 Well OK they signed and dated the outside envelope, but they forgot to put it in the SECRECY envelope.
In certain blue counties (like Allegheny and Philadelphia) the voter is given an opportunity to correct these mistakes before Election Day, and that's called "ballot curing." In most of the red counties there is no "ballot curing" allowed, and therefore none of those mailed ballots with mistakes will ever be counted. Is it fair? No, but the Repukes don't care because they believe they are disqualifying the ballots of Democratic voters.
This is most definitely a Party issue. Democratic voters are being disenfranchised, and many of them don't realize that it's happening.
