Democrats seek injunction over Erie County mail ballot delays, want remedies for voters

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is suing the Erie County Board of Elections over ongoing delays with the delivery of mail-in ballots and a separate snafu that led to nearly 300 people receiving the ballot of another voter.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the party asks Erie County Common Pleas Court to provide remedies for nearly 19,500 Erie County voters who have not yet returned their mail-in ballots, possibly due to having not yet received their ballot or a delay in the delivery of that ballot, problems that have been traced back to the county's third-party vendor, ElectionIQ, and the U.S. Postal Service.

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The Pennsylvania Democratic Party believes that between 10,000 and 20,000 voters have been affected by the issues. The party has asked the county to provide it with a list of all affected voters, any correspondence or guidance that was issued to them, provide ways for voters to cast a ballot in a timely manner, and provide other remedies to ensure "proper administration of the Election Code."

"We are concerned about the situation with mail-in ballots, and we're trying to get to a solution that will allow as many people as possible to vote and have their votes counted," Erie lawyer Timothy McNair said about the lawsuit. "We have made a bunch of proposals and we have requested information and we've had some difficulty getting the information, and we have had some differences as far as remedies with the Republican party. What it comes down to is there's a lot of people who have requested mail ballots who have not received them and may not receive them before Election Day."

A hearing was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday in front of Judge David Ridge.

The Erie County Voter Registration Office and Board of Elections have already begun taking steps to address the issues. Aside from daily meetings with the Department of State, Gov. Josh Shapiro's Office, the Postal Service and ElectionIQ, the county has provided other options for affected voters. On Tuesday, it announced extended and weekend hours through Monday. The office will be open Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Anyone who requested a mail-in ballot before the Oct. 29 deadline but who has not received one can go to the office for a new ballot they can fill out in person through 4:30 p.m. Monday. Their previously requested ballot will be canceled, meaning it cannot be counted in the vote tally if it is completed and submitted.

Origins of Erie County Democrats' lawsuit

The Board of Elections and the Erie County Voter Registration Office have been working with the Department of State and Shapiro's office to determine the cause of the delays. The county in 2023 hired Akron, Ohio-based ElectionIQ to print ballots, including mail-in ballots, and send them to voters who requested them. It's not had any issues with the vendor until now.

Scores of voters have reported that they still have not received their ballots despite requesting them weeks ago and a state ballot tracking website listing them as "pending" for delivery.

In one instance, ElectionIQ dropped off a batch of ballots at a U.S. Postal Service processing center in Pittsburgh, where all Erie mail is sorted, but two bins with roughly 750 ballots were sent from that facility to the wrong post office. Another 1,711 ballot mailers had illegible or missing barcodes, making them untrackable through the software used by the Postal Service, which is now using other methods to see where the ballots are. It has determined that some of them have been delivered.

In a separate incident the county learned about Oct. 18, nearly 300 voters received both their ballot and a ballot of another voter. ElectionIQ explained to the county that the problem arose when an addressing system malfunctioned, and when the system restarted it began inserting ballots and return envelopes with other voters' names and return addresses into outer envelopes addressed to other Erie County voters. All of the voters affected also received the correct ballot.

Mail ballot rate of return in Erie County

In its lawsuit, the party claims the return rate of mail-in ballots in Erie County as of Monday was 52%, which is 15% below the statewide average of 67%. In raw numbers, 21,536 ballots out of 40,844 requested as of Monday had been returned. Tuesday was the deadline to request a mail-in ballot or vote in person at a county board of elections.

As of Wednesday evening, 25,604 completed ballots had been returned to the Voter Registration Office out of 43,779 requested, which is artificially higher by about 2,000 requests because it includes both ballots that were canceled and ballots that were reissued to the same voter, said Erie County Clerk Karen Chillcott. The Voter Registration Office urged voters, especially those now out of state, like college students, to cancel their ballot request so the office could ship them a new ballot by priority express mail if they were concerned about returning the ballot on time.

Chillcott also said that another 600 ballots won't immediately be listed as "returned" because of the duplicate mailing mistake. All affected ballots ― the 600 voters whose ballots were either duplicated and sent to the wrong voter or those who received that duplicate ballot, plus the 300 duplicate ballots themselves ― are being segregated from ballot sorting machines and will be counted by hand to ensure that no one voted twice.

Voters have until the close of polls on Election Day ― 8 p.m. Tuesday ― to return their ballots to the Erie County Voter Registration Office. Typically, the pace at which mail-in ballots are returned increases as Election Day nears.

Voters can use a drop box outside of the Voter Registration Office's home at the Erie County Courthouse, 140 W. Sixth St., to submit their completed ballot. They also can return them to the office itself. The U.S. Postal Service, political parties and others have advised voters against returning completed ballots by mail at this point if they want to ensure timely delivery. Ballots postmarked on or before Election Day are not counted unless they are received before the close of polls.

Voters who worry they won't be able to meet the deadline for submitting a mail-in ballot, or who have not received one by Election Day, have other options, too. They can surrender their mail-in ballot at their polling place and vote in-person as they normally could, or, if they don't have a mail-in ballot to surrender, they can request a provisional ballot, which is a special ballot that is counted manually.

Matthew Rink can be reached at [email protected] or on X at @ETNRink. 

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Dems sue Erie County PA elections board over late, duplicate ballots