Philadelphia election official warning of electoral chaos in the presidential battleground state if lawmakers do not remove a provision that, under a new court decision, requires counties to throw out mail-in ballots returned without secrecy envelopes.
But Deeley said mail-in ballots are no longer counted at polling places where onlookers might see a voter’s choices on ballot that lacks a secrecy envelope. Rather, mail-in ballots are now processed centrally, by machines, where secrecy envelopes only slow down counting.
“The secrecy envelope exists now only as a means to disenfranchise well intentioned Pennsylvania voters,” Deeley wrote. Fueled by concerns over the pandemic, more than 3 million voters in Pennsylvania are expected to cast ballots by mail in the Nov. 3 election. That’s more than 10 times as many as voted by mail in the 2016 presidential election, when Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by slightly more than 44,000 votes, or less than 1 percentage point.
Pennsylvania is one of 16 states that require secrecy envelopes be provided to voters, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Before the court ruled, Wolf’s top elections officials had messaged counties in May to tell them that there is nothing in the law that requires them or authorizes them to discard a ballot that is returned without a secrecy envelope.
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