Vast majority of 16,000 canceled mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania were from registered Democrats

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — New data from Pennsylvania’s elections agency shows an early November state court decision that barred mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes resulted in otherwise valid votes being thrown out.

The Department of State said this week more than 16,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified by county officials because they lacked secrecy envelopes or proper signatures or dates. Democratic voters, who are much more likely to vote by mail, made up more than two-thirds of the total canceled ballots.

The agency said 8,250 Pennsylvania mail-in ballots were rejected because they were sent in without being contained within a secrecy envelope, making it impossible for them to be tabulated without putting voter privacy at risk.

The remaining 7,904 invalidated ballots were tossed out because the exterior envelopes used to send in those ballots did not have the voters’ signatures, or because those exterior envelopes were either undated or improperly dated.

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/f63f7dda-e254-3ec7-80e3-1618c945e6c1/vast-majority-of-16-000.html

[Joe Cool]

1. That's because the vast majority of mail-in voters were Democrats.

[Joinfortmill]

2. Lived in FL and voted by mail. Always double checked

[BWdem4life]

3. Speaking as someone who has opened ballot envelopes

That is complete bullshit.

In Washington state (all vote-by-mail) if you don't use the secrecy envelope, the only consequence is that the machine that slices open the outer envelope is more likely to (barely) slice the folded part of the ballot, requiring the person who opens the ballot to tape it back together so it will go through the scanner properly.

When pulling ballots out of the envelopes, the openers are doing things very quickly and making two stacks (one of outer envelopes, one of ballots in secrecy envelopes). When they come across a ballot that is not in a secrecy envelope, it gets tossed into a third pile (since they're more likely to need tape). The opener is not going to stop and read the name on the outer envelope and then go through the ballot to see how that person voted. They're trying to open as many envelopes as possible in the shortest possible time. But, if they did, it would be noticed by other workers or the supervisor.

Also, Washington State law states that if a person actually signs or otherwise puts their personal information on the actual ballot, that will not disqualify the ballot from being counted.

Disqualifying a ballot just because voter secrecy "might" be compromised is just another BS reason to disenfranchise people (probably because they know who they're most likely going to be disenfranchising).

[FakeNoose]

5. Yes in theory and practice, you're correct - it's complete bullshit

However in our Pennsylvania legislature there were so many Repukes who opposed vote-by-mail bill that they constantly put up more and more roadblocks. One of the roadblocks was this privacy envelope nonsense, but it's now written into the PA law. Also the crap about the outside envelope being hand-signed and dated. More Pennsylvania ballots have been disqualified by those two things than anything else, and that's exactly how the Repukes wanted it to play out.

Disqualify only Dems' ballots, not Repukes' ballots. That's their game.

[twodogsbarking]

4. I vote by mail in Pa. It isn't that difficult but you have to read the instructions.

Reading isn't a given for everyone.