Clearing the air about some voting misconceptions
To the Times:
It amazes me how much misinformation about voting by mail and in-person voting is being perpetrated on the American public.
I have worked the polls in Pennsylvania for many years, both as a party representative and now, as an elected election official. It has certainly been an interesting few years as Pennsylvania has dramatically changed their mail-in voting laws as well as a major change in voting machines.
The misinformation is about how mail-in voters can be listed and double voting is prevented.
In my many years of being involved in local elections I have never seen, or even suspected, an organized attempt to vote more than once. The amount of issues with allowing voters to vote have been few and far between but there is a procedure and, yes, we do know who has requested a mail-in ballot and who has not.
As indicated on the mailin ballot request form for Delaware County, once you have requested a mailin ballot you are now disqualified by voting in-person in the election. The little registration book we ask you to sign tells us immediately if a mail-in ballot request has been received in your name. We have no idea at the polling place as to whether you, in fact, have sent in your ballot or even if you received one. We only know that you requested one and that eliminates you from in-person voting. That is the first check against duplicate voting.
If you claim at polling place that you never sent in your ballot or that you never received a confirmation of ballot receipt you may request and vote with a provisional ballot. Every polling place has the ability, in fact the duty, to offer a person a provisional ballot. Notice I didn’t qualify that the person has to be registered or qualified in any way other than to claim the right to vote. It is to give everyone the right to vote and let the local authority investigate the voter’s registration and qualifications to vote. It is a paper ballot that you fill in with your vote selections. You include your name, address and signature and the ballot is sealed. We turn that provisional ballot in with all the other ballots (but we do not count the votes on any provisional ballots) and information at the end of the day. This allows the voting authority to conduct their investigation.
If the reason is due to a mail-in ballot the authority will make sure that no other ballot has been cast in that person’s name and/ or that the person in question is registered to vote in that precinct. If the person is not qualified or if a mailin ballot has been received then the provisional ballot is filed and not counted. If the provisional ballot is accepted it will then be added to the count.
My experience is that any time a person believes they have a right to cast a ballot, but we cannot verify that information, we offer a provisional ballot. That protects the vote and the voters right to cast a ballot.
After numerous years of serving at the polls I don’t think I’ve been involved in more than a handful of provisional ballots. We resolve most issues with a little research and phone calls (usually they’re at the wrong polling place).
The reality is that poll workers want your vote to count. We spend endless hours operating the polls on every election day as well as training sessions before every election. We have the full support of the election authority including a full phone bank to call with every type of issue from registration to machine issues.
We, your polling officials and volunteers, are pleased to be part of an enormous system of temporary polling places through-out Pennsylvania and the United States. We take our jobs very seriously to ensure a fair and legal election and to make sure that every person has their opportunity to vote.