Chesco makes another election error, after residents said their faith in voting security was shaken
Mail ballot applications reversed first and last names, but officials said it wouldn't affect processing of applications.
On the heels of a massive pollbook error that left thousands of voters off the rolls in the November election and prompted an independent investigation, Chester County is facing another mistake from its voter services department.
Earlier this month, the county’s reminder notices, sent to voters who said they would like to receive an annual mail ballot application, reversed the first and last names of voters on the applications. It was not clear how many applications were affected by the error.
“This printing error will not affect the processing of the form,” the county’s voter services department posted on its website. “Whether voters choose to submit their application online or using the paper form, all applications will be processed accordingly.”
It was another blunder for a department that has made administrative mistakes in its elections, with residents telling county commissioners last week the errors were eroding their trust in election safety. It also comes as voters have called for the firing of the director of the department after the office has seen high numbers of turnover.
Counties across the state are sending reminders to voters who said they would like to receive an application to vote by mail. The county became aware of the mistake on Feb. 4, after it mailed out the applications earlier that week.
County officials alerted the Pennsylvania Department of State that day, a spokesperson for the agency said.
“We agree with county officials that there is no need to reissue the applications,” the spokesperson said in an email.
A county spokesperson referred to the voter services statement.
More than 52,000 county voters cast their ballots by mail in November.
Residents had worried during a public meeting last week that the county would make another misstep. The meeting was the first since the county released an independent report investigating a pollbook error that omitted roughly 75,000 unaffiliated and third-party voters and forced more than 12,000 voters to cast provisional ballots in the general election.
November’s error followed another omission in May, when the county did not include the office of the prothonotary on its primary ballot, due to a legal misinterpretation from the county’s solicitor.
The issues come as the department’s director, Karen Barsoum, has been accused of fostering a toxic workplace, leading to unusually high turnover. The independent investigation found no evidence of that, the lawyers who penned the report said last week.
The investigation found no evidence of malfeasance in the election blunders, but rather that lack of training, poor oversight, and staffing challenges compounded to cause the pollbook error.
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