HARRISBURG, Pa. — Some county election offices are being overwhelmed with duplicate mail-in ballot applications. More than 370,000 mail-in ballot applications have been rejected, according to state data released to the Philadelphia Inquirer. FOX43 reached out to the Dept. of State for this data, but have not heard back.
Duplicate ballots is an issue county elections offices have been overwhelmed with.
"We ask people to be patient, don't do duplicates," said Michael Anderson, Lebanon County Director of Elections. "If you know you mailed one in, give us time. If you don't get a ballot then call us, don't just keep sending in one because you keep getting them."
Anderson says, third parties have sent out mail-in ballot applications to voters, which has caused confusion and people filling out more than one application.
"I had one email somebody said, they got three and they already sent one in and they said, 'well should I do this since I got another one?' I said It's not from me, don't do it, please don't do another one," said Anderson.
Of the more than 43,000 rejected ballot applications in our area, about 4,500 had something wrong other than being a duplicate. There could be a number of issues as to why an application is rejected, including:
- Not being registered to vote
- Invalid ID
- Name or address change
- Missing information, like a birth date
Election officials remind people applying for a mail-in ballot to make sure they are registered to vote and that all requested information is filled out and accurate. The deadline to register to vote is Monday, October 19th. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Wednesday October 27th. You can click here to check your voter registration status.