PHILADELPHIA - A new analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has found that more than 9,000 people were able to cast ballots that were counted in the 2024 general election in the commonwealth after first making disqualifying mistakes on their mail ballots, such as a missing signature, secrecy envelope, or missing or incorrect handwritten date on the return envelope.
The majority of those voters, more than 7,000, were able to ensure their vote was counted through their county’s “notice-and-cure” policy. Under these policies, which exist in varying forms in 36 counties, voters are notified that they have made a mistake and are given the chance to either correct the error or are issued a new ballot after their initial ballot is canceled.
Additionally, more than 2,000 Pennsylvanians cast provisional ballots at the polls that were counted after they made a disqualifying mistake with their mail ballots. Some counties have notice policies in which they inform mail voters by phone or letter of errors with their ballots in advance of Election Day. Other counties record the cancellation into the SURE system, the commonwealth’s statewide voter registration database, which generates an automatic email that lets the voter know there’s a problem with their mail ballot. Early notice allows voters to preserve their right to vote by casting a provisional ballot on Election Day. A 2024 lawsuit litigated by the ACLU of Pa. and Public Interest Law Center led the state Supreme Court to order counties to count provisional ballots from voters who made mail ballot mistakes.
“The right to vote of nearly 10,000 Pennsylvanians was protected in last year’s election, thanks to these county policies that encourage voter participation,” said Mike Lee, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “That’s a win for democracy, and we applaud the majority of counties that inform voters about their potentially disqualifying mistakes. Our question for the other counties is, why aren’t you doing more to help people vote?”
According to the ACLU analysis, nearly 18,000 mail ballot voters in the general election made a disqualifying mistake at some point prior to Election Day. Of those, more than 7,100 voters were able to cure their ballots and more than 2,200 cast provisional ballots that were counted. Thus, approximately 52% of voters with mail ballot errors were able to submit a ballot that was ultimately counted.
Among counties with notice-and-cure policies, Allegheny had the highest rate of cured ballots at 70%. Dauphin and Delaware also had high cure rates, at 68% and 67%, respectively. Dauphin implemented a notice-and-cure policy for the first time in the 2024 general election.
“Election officials, candidates, and voting rights groups deserve a lot of credit for their voter education efforts in last year’s election,” said Marian Schneider, senior policy counsel for voting rights at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Mail ballot mistakes were down, and a majority of people who had errors were eventually able to participate with ballots that counted. We all made sure that voters knew how to properly complete their mail ballot packets and that they had a chance to correct mistakes if they made them.”
In early October, the ACLU of Pennsylvania released a comprehensive guide to counties’ policies on how they handle disqualifying errors that lead to mail ballots being disqualified.
More information about the ACLU-PA’s analysis, including its methodology, is available at this link.
