Judge orders 11th-hour remedies for Erie County voters affected by delayed mail ballots

A judge on Friday ordered a series of remedies to ensure thousands of Erie County voters are not disenfranchised by a string of mail ballot snafus that have left election officials and voters scrambling for answers just days before the Nov. 5 election.

The ruling comes after the Pennsylvania Democratic Party sued the Erie County Board of Elections on Wednesday, seeking the court’s intervention into ongoing ballot delays traced back to a third-party vendor and the U.S. Postal Service.

The Pennsylvania Republican Party subsequently joined the lawsuit.

Here are some key takeaways.

Judge authorizes overnight ballot delivery to out-of-state voters

As of Friday, Erie County elections officials reported 919 voters who temporarily reside out of state and who might not have received their mail ballots yet.

Erie County Clerk Karen Chillcott said the elections office has reached out to these voters via email and granted requests to mail them new ballots via U.S. Postal Service priority mail. However, even with priority mail, the ballots take a few days to arrive.

As such, Erie County Judge David Ridge ruled the Erie County Board of Elections has the option of using an overnight delivery service, like FedEx, to send and receive mail ballots to and from out-of-state voters who request a new one.

The voter must cover the cost for the return mailing, Chillcott said.

Ridge also ordered the Board of Elections to share the email addresses of the out-of-state voters with both political parties, allowing them to do their own outreach.

Ridge denied suggestions by attorneys to email ballots to voters or set up satellite election offices around the county, due to legal and logistical hurdles.

A deadline extension for mail-in ballots was also not entertained.

Out-of-state voters who haven't received their mail ballot can contact the elections office at 814-451-6275 or email the department at [email protected] to have a replacement ballot sent to them. All other emails should be sent to [email protected].

Erie County elections office to expand weekend hours

Ridge also expanded weekend hours for the Erie County Voter Registration and Elections Office.

The office will now be open Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will also be open Monday from 8 a.m. to 6 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. Their previously requested ballot will be canceled, meaning it cannot be counted in the vote tally if it is completed and submitted.

The Board of Elections has also set up an additional phone line dedicated to voters with a disability or illness that prevents them from coming into the office. These voters can call 814-451-6011 and get a replacement ballot delivered to their home.

All other callers are advised to use the general line at 814-451-6275.

ElectionIQ ordered to hand-deliver outstanding ballots

Ridge also ordered ElectionIQ, the Ohio-based vendor that printed and mailed the county’s mail ballots, to hand-deliver any items requested but not yet received by the Erie County elections office by 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Those items include roughly 18,000 paper ballots that were supposed to be delivered to the county Oct. 21 to help stock five precincts, according to Chillcott.

Chillcott, who voiced her doubts on the reliability of ElectionIQ, said the elections office, as a backup, has ordered 18,000 ballots from Spectrum Printers, a Michigan-based company.

“We did this because we had no confidence that we would actually receive the ones from ElectionIQ in time for the election,” she said. “We had to quickly pivot and find a printer that could print ballots for the Dominion machines. No local companies could do that, so we went outside the area.”

Chillcott said the elections office also purchased 50,000 blank ballot stock that will allow election officials to print additional ballots at the polls if necessary.

“We have supplies for 14,000 provisional ballots and are awaiting delivery of another 5,000,” she said. “We’re sure that we have enough now.”

Voters who’ve yet to receive their mail-in ballot have the option of going to the polls on Election Day and requesting a provisional ballot. Their mail ballot will be cancelled at that time.

ElectionIQ in the spotlight

The county in March 2023 hired ElectionIQ to print its ballots, including mail-in ballots, and send them to voters who requested them. The county had no issues with the vendor until now.

In one instance, ElectionIQ received a request for 28,000 ballots from the elections office Oct. 1. ElectionIQ informed the elections office the ballots would be delivered to a U.S. Postal Service processing center in Pittsburgh, where all Erie mail is sorted, on Oct. 9. However, the ballots arrived at the center piecemeal between Oct. 11-15 and even Oct. 23.

Another 1,711 ballot mailers had illegible or missing barcodes, making them untraceable 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.

Chillcott said the county is still missing 7,450 ballots from ElectionIQ.

In a separate incident the county learned about Oct. 18, nearly 300 voters received both their ballot and a ballot of another voter. That number has since jumped to closer to 400 and could be more, according to Chillcott.

Chillcott said the elections office will do its best to segregate any ballots affected by duplications. However, she added, there's a possibility that duplicate ballots could slip through. She said the elections office will allow a representative from each party inside the elections office on election night to observe and validate ballots.

ElectionIQ's contract with the county continues to the end of 2025.

"I can't even contemplate a world where we would use them again," Chillcott said. "It's just unimaginable what's happened."

Chillcott added that while initially "disappointed" by the lawsuit, the outcome has brought much-needed clarity and collaboration to an extremely tense situation.

"We're in a crisis point where the election is on Tuesday ... and I feel really encouraged that both of the parties were able to come together with the court and with our department and that we can make this work," she said.

A.J. Rao can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNRao.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie County judge orders remedies for voters' mail ballot issues