(Headline USA) Hundreds of mail-in ballots failed to arrive for a special election in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, according to a report.
More than 300 people in Luzerne County did not get the ballots they requested to vote in the election to choose the successor for Republican state Rep. Tarah Toohil, according to ABC-27.
Two files containing the 305 ballots – 68 of which were absentee and 237 of which were mail-in – were incorrectly entered into the election system by the Pennsylvania State Department, said Luzerne County Board of Elections Chairwoman Denise Williams. As a result, those who applied for the ballots never received them, or received them just days before they were due.
“The oversight created a delay in these voters receiving their mail-in ballots, receiving them with only a few days left until the 116th Legislative District Special Election Day,” the Pennsylvania State Department said in a statement.
However, a judge ruled on Monday that citizens affected by the delay can still submit their votes as long as the ballots are postmarked and mailed by Friday.
“Those voters were impacted and it would be important not to disenfranchise anything that’s not their fault at all,” Williams said.
Some local officials pointed out that this is just another example in which mail-in voting has become a problem.
“Again, it’s always the mail-in ballots that are having the problems,” said Luzerne County Council member Brian Thorton.
“People are just fearful and they are afraid that there is fraud going on and we need to remove that, we need to make the vote the most sacred thing like it always was.”
John Lombardo, vice-chair of the Luzerne County Council, agreed and said that because voter turnout in a special election is already so low, this mishap could affect the results.
“My concern is that really in a special election like this, the turnout is going to be so predictably low that any oversight is going to affect the election,” he said.
Republican state Sens. Lisa Baker, David Argall, and John Gordner vowed to look into the error to make sure the election’s integrity was not compromised.
“Effective election processes are essential to conducting a successful election, and to voter confidence in election results,” they lawmakers said in a joint statement.
“Errors such as [these] undermine voters’ faith in our elections and could prevent voters’ legitimate exercise of their right to vote. With these important considerations at stake, we and the public must understand how this could have occurred.”
