How disabled voters can legally use ballot drop box
It’s disappointing that so many people are complaining about the plan by District Attorney Jim Martin to monitor Lehigh County’s mail ballot drop boxes before the looming primary election.
Does that mean they condone breaking the mail voting law, which prohibits someone from dropping multiple ballots in a box?
Pennsylvania’s top elections official, acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman, joined the chorus Thursday. She said she is “very concerned” about Martin’s plan. She asked him to back down.
Her concern is misplaced.
She should be concerned with voters following the law and the state conducting a fair election.
With one important exception, the law prohibits people from putting multiple ballots in a drop box, or a mailbox. Voters must return their own ballot. The law is clear.
A lot of people believe that’s asinine. A lot of laws may be asinine, but that doesn’t mean officials should look the other way when they are broken.
Martin has evidence the law was broken during the last election at Lehigh’s drop boxes. A review of video showed at least 288 people deposited more than one ballot. There likely were more.
He’s doing what any good law enforcement officer would do — making sure the law isn’t broken again. He’s warned there could be criminal charges for violators who return multiple ballots.
Sure, Martin is a Republican, the party of voter intimidation and suppression. But he isn’t intimidating voters or suppressing votes. He’s doing his job.
Remember, voters don’t have to use a drop box.
You can vote at the polls — even if you asked for a mail ballot (more on that later). Or, you can return your mail ballot through the mail.
Drop boxes are just one option. I’m glad they remain an option in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Some counties have scrapped them. Only 22 of the state’s 67 counties are using them for this election, Chapman told reporters Thursday.
I’ve previously criticized voters for needlessly using drop boxes in past elections. Not this time. They may be the only way to ensure mail ballots are delivered by the May 17 primary Election Day.
Ballots went out late this year because state politicians bickered over redistricting. There were further delays in some counties, including Lehigh, as candidates challenged the legality of opponents’ nominating petitions.
Relying on the mail to get your ballot delivered in time will be a gamble if you don’t mail it back in the next few days.
I haven’t received my ballot yet. If I don’t get it soon, I’m going to forget about it and go to the polls, surrender my unused ballot (assuming I get it), and vote there. My polling place is a closer drive than my county’s sole ballot box, so that’s more convenient.
Don’t let the controversy over drop boxes in Lehigh County stop you from using them. If you follow the law, you won’t have a problem.
Advocates believe Martin’s surveillance could scare people with disabilities from having someone else return their ballot for them. Disabled people are the exception to the law. They can have someone return their ballot.
But they must go through a formal process for it to be legal. Advocates say there hasn’t been enough outreach to explain that. Here’s how it works.
Anyone who is disabled can designate another person to request and/or return their mail ballot. The designation must be done in writing, on a “designated agent form” returned to the county election office.
That form is available online through the Lehigh election office (lehighcounty.org); the Northampton County election office (northamptoncounty.org); and the Pennsylvania Department of State (dos.pa.gov).
If you don’t have internet
access, call your county election office to get a form. (Lehigh, 610-782-3194; Northampton, 610-829-6260).
People who are designated as agents should keep a copy of the form in case they are questioned as they return someone else’s ballot.
The Disability Rights Pennsylvania was one of 22 organizations that on Thursday asked Martin to back down.
“Uninformed and mistaken accusations of voters depositing ballots will disproportionately chill the right of voters with disabilities to cast a ballot because they and their lawful proxies will fear prosecution,” they told Martin in a letter.
Voters with disabilities shouldn’t be afraid. They should research their rights, then exercise them.
Regardless of how you return your mail ballot, take care to fill
it out completely. If you don’t, it might not be counted. And you won’t have anyone to blame but yourself.
I’ve written previously that voting by mail is as easy as boiling water. Fill out the ballot. Put it in the secrecy envelope. Put that envelope in the return envelope. Sign and date the return envelope.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that ballots can’t be counted if they are not in the secrecy envelope — known as naked ballots — or if they are not signed or dated.
If you don’t get your mail ballot, or if you get it too late to return it by mail and cannot get to a drop box by Election Day, you still can vote.
You have the right to go to your polling place. Your name will be marked in the pollbook as having received a mail ballot. But if you surrender your unused mail ballot,
and both of the envelopes it came with, you can vote at the polls.
If you didn’t receive your mail ballot, or if you go to the polls without it, you can vote with a provisional ballot. It will be counted once it is confirmed that your mail ballot was not submitted.
Don’t try to game the system and vote twice. If your mail ballot was received, your provisional ballot will be rejected.
Voting twice, of course, would be fraud. It would be asinine for officials to ignore that, right? People would be screaming for heads to roll.
So what’s the difference between that and enforcing the drop box rule?
There is none.