By Christopher Harper
In Pennsylvania, a pivotal state in the 2024 campaign, it appears that the Democrats, who control much of the state government voting apparatus, realize that mail-in ballots played a significant role in Biden’s election as president.
Over the past two weeks, my wife and I have received six application forms to file for absentee ballots.
Moreover, the slick presentation allows us to file a once-for-a-lifetime guarantee of mail-in ballots for each election.
It is unclear how the local and state officials verify the requests for mail-in ballots, which were once known as “absentee” ballots for use when an individual would not be at his or her home address on Election Day.
But other problems loom as November nears.
Pennsylvania has experienced a significant decline in the number of experienced election directors, increasing the risk of errors that could cause voters difficulties, disenfranchise their votes, and ignite disputes over results.
In total, 58 officials who served during the November 2019 election have left. Compared with experience levels during the 2019 election, the state has lost a combined 293 years of experience among the top county election officials as of this publishing date, according to a Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis of county data. The state has 21% fewer years of experience than it did for the November 2019 election.
Recent ballot printing and administration errors in Greene and Luzerne Counties, among others, show that having less-experienced county administrators can result in more problems occurring in an election. Last year, one of Greene County’s errors was an incorrect instruction telling voters to choose up to three candidates in a commissioner race that allowed only two selections.
If a voter had followed the instructions, the ballot would not have been counted.
“I think the loss of experienced election directors at the county level is one of the biggest dangers we face,” Secretary of State Al Schmidt said recently. “That turnover creates an environment where it’s more likely for mistakes to be made.”
After the 2022 elections, a flurry of precinct-level recount petitions prevented Pennsylvania from certifying its election results until Dec. 22 — weeks later than usual.
This year presents an even more challenging scenario: a new federal law requires states to certify their slate of presidential electoral votes by Dec. 11, about five weeks after Election Day.
Forrest Lehman, the election director for Lycoming County in north central Pennsylvania, said he had hoped the legislature would shore up vulnerabilities in the post-election process in response to Congress passing the Electoral Count Reform Act, though that now seems unlikely.
“We need to look at what needs to be clarified, maybe what parts need to be hardened a little bit so that someone can’t take advantage of them,” he said. “The recount petitions are one example, but also [there’s] the potential for a repeat of what we saw previously, where a county simply refused to certify its results, and they had to be taken to court.”
Lehman referred to a dispute between the Pennsylvania Department of State and several counties after the spring primaries in 2022. Berks, Fayette, and Lancaster Counties refused to include mail ballots without handwritten dates.
The department sued the counties and eventually obtained a court order compelling them to include the votes. However, the process took over two months.
