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    • Erie County judge to rule on appeals over mail-in voting delays
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    Erie County judge to rule on appeals over mail-in voting delays

    Umito Posted on

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    A judge is expected to decide Friday on a series of remedies to help thousands of Erie County voters who applied but never received their absentee ballots.

    The decision comes after Pennsylvania Democratic Party sues Erie County Board of Elections Wednesday, seeking an injunction regarding continued voting delays escalated to a third-party provider and the U.S. Postal Service.

    The Pennsylvania Republican Party later joined the lawsuit.

    On Thursday, Erie County Judge David Ridge presided over a hearing in the case. Attorneys representing both political parties interviewed witnesses, including Erie County Clerk Karen Chillcott, Erie County Elections Director Tonia Fernandez, and Daniel Chalupsky, vice president of ElectionIQthe Ohio-based vendor that printed and mailed the county’s absentee ballots.

    After hours of testimony, Ridge said he would resume the hearing Friday morning to make his decision. He said the decided solutions must be implemented quickly, as election officials and voters are already scrambling for answers just days before the Nov. 5 election.

    “Time flies,” Ridge said Thursday. “All the lawyers and I are going to do it this afternoon and maybe first thing (Friday) morning will be to try to collectively write an order that will cover as many possible remedies and solutions to this whole situation as possible.”

    He added: “I remain confident that everyone here is trying to find an appropriate solution and doing everything they can… to try to ensure that every person who has followed the law and… requested an absentee ballot has the possibility of voting. or before November 5.

    Satellite election sites are a possibility

    One possible solution could be opening temporary satellite election sites in other areas of the county.

    The goal would be to accommodate more voters in the county and reduce wait times, often several hours, at the Erie County Courthouse. It will also give voters who have not yet received their absentee ballot a greater opportunity to obtain a new absentee ballot in person.

    Fernandez said she was open to the idea, but said she would need to consult with the Pennsylvania Department of State and ensure she has enough staff and equipment to operate one or more separate sites. She said the State Department has offered to provide the county with additional computers.

    Additional appeals already underway

    Fernandez and Chillcott said other solutions are already in place.

    On Tuesday, the elections office announced extended hours and weekends until 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 an absentee ballot before the October 29 deadline but has not received one can visit the office for a new ballot which they can fill out in person until 4:30 p.m. Monday . The previously requested ballot will be voided, meaning it cannot be counted in the vote count if completed and submitted.

    Anyone who has not yet received their absentee ballot and is currently out of state can email the elections office at [email protected] and receive a priority mail ballot .

    Election officials can also hand-deliver absentee ballots to people in Erie County who have not yet received their absentee ballot and are unable to come to the courthouse due to of an illness or disability.

    “Ultimately, we need to get ballots into the hands of voters,” Chillcott said.

    The Pennsylvania Department of State tracked 41,930 approved absentee ballot requests in Erie County on Thursday. That number could be inflated by about 2,000 because it includes both spoiled ballots and ballots reissued to the same voter. Of that total, 23,938 mail-in ballots were returned, meaning about 18,000 voters have yet to return their mail-in ballots.

    Origins of the trial

    In 2023, the county hired ElectionIQ to print ballots, including absentee ballots, and mail them to voters who requested them. So far there have been no problems with the supplier.

    Many voters said they still haven’t received their ballots, despite requesting them weeks ago and a state ballot tracking website listing them as “waiting” for delivery.

    In one case, 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 containing about 750 ballots were sent from that facility at the wrong post office.

    Another 1,711 ballot senders had unreadable or missing barcodes, making them impossible to track through the software used by the Postal Service, which now uses other methods to see where ballots are. It was established that some of them were delivered.

    In another incident, the county was notified on October 18. nearly 300 voters received both their ballot and that of another voter.

    AJ Rao can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on @ETNRao.

    Umito
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