Chester County poll book error forces independents to vote provisionally through the afternoon
The county worked to deliver additional poll books to allow independent and third party voters to cast ballots on voting machines. The county resolved the issue by 3:45 p.m.
Independents in Chester County were forced to cast a provisional ballot through the morning hours and early afternoon on Election Day.
Poll books delivered to Chester County’s precincts Tuesday morning did not include the names of independent and third-party voters, the county’s voter services department said in a post to X. As a result, poll workers were unable to allow those voters to cast ballots on machines as normal.
The county resolved the issue, delivering supplemental poll books to precincts, by 3:45 p.m. Tuesday. In response to the problem, the county extended voting hours by two hours. Voters who arrive at their polling places between 8 and 10 p.m. will have the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot.
Poll books are the records poll workers use to verify that each voter is an eligible voter seeking to cast a ballot in the correct precinct.
Until the supplemental books were delivered, voters were asked to cast provisional ballots.
A provisional ballot is used when poll workers cannot immediately verify the eligibility of a voter. The ballots will be counted, but they are counted later than other votes, as election officials must first verify that the voter is eligible and has not already cast a ballot by mail or at another polling place.
All eligible voters in the county ultimately had the opportunity to cast a ballot and have it be counted.
Just over 75,000 Chester County voters are unaffiliated or registered to vote with a third party. Far fewer voters were likely to be affected by the error, however, as many cast mail ballots ahead of the election and odd-year elections tend to be lower in turnout.
A spokesperson for Chester County said the county will conduct a formal review to determine how unaffiliated and third-party voters were left off poll books and how to prevent it from happening again.
Voters can track the status of their provisional ballot at https://www.pa.gov/agencies/vote/voter-support/provisional-ballot.