LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — Due to an error discovered on mail-in ballots sent out last week ahead of the May 16 primary election, nearly 19,000 mail-in voters in Lancaster County will be issued corrected ballots, the county's Board of Elections announced Monday.
The same error was made in ballots sent to Democratic and Republican voters in the state Superior Court primary, the elections office said. Instead of directing voters to choose two candidates in the race, the ballots incorrectly tell them to only vote for one.
There are three Democrats and two Republicans running in the primary. The Democratic candidates are Jill Beck, Patrick Dugan, and Timika Lane, while the Republicans are Maria Battista and Harry F. Small Jr.
The error on the ballot was discovered last Friday, according to an announcement by the Lancaster County Board of Elections.
Prior to the error being detected, 18,554 ballots were processed by the Postal Service to be mailed to voters, the Board of Elections said.
Since the mistake was found, all Postmasters have been contacted and all Lancaster County post offices are currently pulling, counting, and securing the erroneous ballots for collection by the Board of Elections.
As of Monday, more than 15,000 incorrect ballots have already been recovered, the Board of Elections said.
All voters will receive a new ballot with an outer envelope labeled "REPLACEMENT," the Board of Elections said.
Replacement ballots will have corrected language and a color instructions sheet with directions, the Board said. Any voter who has received their ballot already should discard that ballot and wait for receipt of a replacement ballot before proceeding to vote, according to the Board.
Affected voters who have contact information within the SURE System may have already been notified that their ballot has been canceled and a replacement is on the way, according to the Board.
Any ballots returned with the error will not be processed and set aside by the Board of Elections. Voters who have already returned an incorrect ballot should complete and return the replacement ballot, the Board said.
Mail-in ballots will begin to arrive to voters in Lancaster County on Monday, April 24th.
The deadline to return mail-in ballots to the Board of Elections is 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 16.