There has been a growing and concerning trend in Pennsylvania’s elections: increasing rejections of provisional ballots due to minor, fixable technical errors. Kathy Boockvar spoke with Votebeat about these patterns and what might explain and prevent them.
Boockvar and county election officials explained that the rise in rejected provisional ballots may be driven by a tangle of factors, including the decentralization of our elections and inconsistent poll worker training from county to county. Additionally, the provisional ballot materials and envelopes are complicated and require multiple signatures from poll workers as well as two different signatures by the voter.
Boockvar emphasized that every rejection for an incomplete envelope, such as a missing signature or unchecked box, is entirely preventable.
“Any incomplete affidavit or anything missing from a form is 100% fixable from a standpoint of poll worker training and double checks,” she said. “Really no voter should ever be disenfranchised from a form when you are literally sitting there with someone filling that form.”
In 2016, less than 1% of provisional ballots were rejected for envelope errors. By 2024, that rate had increased to nearly 5%, amounting to more than 4,800 ballots tossed out, not for ineligibility, but for avoidable paperwork mistakes.
Boockvar and other officials pointed to the need for statewide standards and redesign.
Read the full article here: https://www.mcall.com/2025/04/14/last-resort-ballots-are-increasingly-being-rejected-for-technical-errors-in-pennsylvania-why/