Citing extraordinary circumstances, Chester County will count the vast majority of provisional ballots cast after Election Day chaos

The Chester County Board of Elections rejected Republican challenges to provisional ballots Monday as the board prepares to launch an investigation into a poll book error that forced thousands of independent and third-party voters to cast provisional ballots during this month’s election.

In a nearly six-hour meeting, the Democratic-led board heard from dozens of voters and poll workers who described the chaos they endured on Nov. 4 during the high-turnout municipal election. The election resulted in more than 12,000 provisional ballots being cast primarily by independent and third-party voters blocked from voting on machines — an unusually high amount.

The election board, which is made up of the county’s commissioners, voted to count the vast majority of the provisional ballots, arguing that the county’s mistake allowed the board to accept ballots that would be rejected under normal circumstances.

“People’s ballots deserve to be counted in this circumstance,” said Josh Maxwell, a Democrat who chairs the three-member board. “If we make a mistake, we have to remedy it.”

The error was caused when officials mistakenly sent poll books to precincts that did not include the names of independent and third-party voters. Until supplemental poll books were provided to precincts late in the day, those voters were asked to cast a provisional ballot.

Provisional ballots are cast when voters are unable to vote by machine on Election Day, most often because they already requested a mail ballot or are at the wrong polling place.

The ballots require an additional level of review before they are counted. Provisional ballots are often more likely to be rejected than mail ballots or ballots cast on voting machines in person because voters are less familiar with the voting method and are required to place ballots in a secrecy envelope and sign in two places.

The Chester County Republican Committee objected to the counting of more than 1,000 ballots ahead of Monday’s meeting. That number whittled down as the committee withdrew objections to ballots where the error was likely caused by election workers. But the GOP committee’s attorney argued that it would be illegal to count ballots missing the first required voter signature or a secrecy envelope.

By allowing the votes to count, she argued, the board was setting a dangerous precedent.

“These votes are not going to change the outcome of elections, but what they do is they change the way the law is interpreted. They give someone the ability to bypass the safeguards that are in the law,” said Dolores Troiani, an attorney for the county GOP.

The ballots, the party argued, needed to be rejected to preserve voter confidence in county elections. In a letter to the commissioners, the party argued that voter confidence had dropped after the poll book error, the office’s failure to include a county row office on the primary ballot, and high turnover in the county election office.

In response, the letter said, county officials should not certify the November election.

Democratic officials rejected all the GOP challenges.

“We should not, especially when it is of no fault of their own, be disenfranchising voters,” said Democratic Commissioner Marian Moskowitz.

Republican Commissioner Eric Roe voted against counting the ballots, arguing that there was no legal basis to do so.

“If the legislature wanted to make exceptions, it should have and would have said so,” Roe said. “I will be relying on what the law says and not what I wish it says.”

Voters on Monday voiced frustration and confusion at having learned their ballot, which they were told would count, would be rejected for an error they were not aware of at the polling place. Several were angry that the county GOP asked for eligible voters’ ballots to be rejected.

Edith Jones, a poll worker, approached the podium nearly in tears Monday to tell commissioners that she worried she’d caused more than a dozen voters to have their ballots thrown out. As the day began, she said, she directed voters to fill out their provisional ballots but forgot to provide them with the required secrecy envelope.

“I gave them instructions, but when somebody in authority tells you what to do, who’s going to read all those words on the paper?” Jones said.

Throughout testimony, voters and the Republican Party questioned how the error could occur and demanded remedy moving forward.

“We have no guarantee they’ll fix it,” Troiani said in an interview after the meeting. However, the attorney said the party would not appeal the board’s decisions.

Last week, the county announced plans to hire an outside firm to investigate the poll book error.

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