County elections director blames postal service for ballot delays

Nov. 3—MERCER — Problems with mail-in ballots appear to happen in a cluster, and are a postal delivery issue, said Thad Hall, Mercer County elections director.

Some county residents have complained about not having received their mail-in ballot and are worried that their vote will not be counted.

"In every election that we've had starting with 2020, going forward, we've had ballot delivery issues that are somewhat clustered," Hall said. "It seems to be a postal delivery issue."

In what Hall called another example of postal delivery issues, the U.S. Postal Service delivered Lawrence County mail-in ballots to the office in Mercer County.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania's acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman advised voters to hand-deliver their mail-in ballots to their county's respective elections offices.

While the postal service expedites ballot-related mail, with delivery expected in two to three days, Chapman said state residents no longer have any margin for error once the postal service has the ballot.

"For those who still have their mail ballot, I repeat, hand-deliver it as soon as possible to be sure your county election office receives it before the deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day," Chapman said Tuesday.

Hall echoed Chapman's advice and said voters should ensure that the department receives their mail-in ballots by delivering them in person to the Mercer County elections office at 130 N. Pitt St., Suite B, Mercer (side entrance).

State law forbids anyone but voter himself from returning a ballot. The only exceptions are voters with a disability or who vote with emergency ballots; they can designate someone in writing to deliver it.

If residents are unable to do this because they are out-of-state, for example, they should call the elections office at 724-662-7542, request the ballot, and send it back by U.S. Postal Service priority mail.

If a resident is disabled, there is a form that will allow someone to pick up the ballot in their place.

"Most people have received their ballots," Hall said. "We do have these cluster of problems."

Without having completed an official analysis of the problem, Hall said the problems seem to center around Sharpsville and Grove City.

"I would strongly encourage people to contact our office and they can actually come here to get their ballots," Hall said. "Because of the postal problem and the transit time."

Pennsylvania adopted no-excuse, mail-in voting beginning with the 2020 primary election. Previously, voters had to affirm that they would be unable to cast their ballots in person, either because they would be outside their election precinct on Election Day or because of a physical disability.

In the November 2020 presidential general election, the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General's office reported that 46% of voters cast their ballot by mail nationally. The figure for 2016 was 21%.

The USPS also reported that 10 million more people cast mail-in ballots than in the 2020 primary election. However, an audit released in September indicated that the department delivered 97.6% of its election mail on time.

Mark Lawrence, a USPS strategic communication specialist for the western Pennsylvania region, said the service delivered the Lawrence County ballots to Mercer County due to a processing error, and they have been delivered to their correct destination. The postal service clears all mail in its offices twice a day.

"We are monitoring Western Pennsylvania ballots traveling through our network and continue to work closely with local election officials and look forward to a successful election," Lawrence said in an email Wednesday to The Herald. "Regarding ballot delivery in the upcoming election, the postal service will once again deploy longstanding processes and procedures to ensure the timely processing and delivery of ballots, including 'extraordinary measures' in effect now through Nov. 29."

Hall said the commissioners and board of elections have taken steps to improve the process. They made sure that all of the ballots printed are transported by Pitney Bowes from the printing plant directly into the mail stream in Pittsburgh.

"That has reduced the number of problems we've had over time," Hall said. "So we're very happy about that."

But it is still a problem.

"This is an ongoing postal issue and we have not found a satisfactory solution to it," Hall said.

Contact the elections office at 724-662-7542, at 130 N. Pitt St., Suite B (side entrance) Mercer. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com