December 03, 2023
Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images; Sipa USA
Pennsylvania will use redesigned mail-in ballots in the presidential primary election on April 23, 2024. The changes are intended to reduce common errors that can disqualify voters' ballots, state election officials say.
Pennsylvania will issue redesigned mail-in ballots intended to reduce voter errors ahead of the 2024 primary, the Shapiro administration announced last week.
The design changes were made to correct common mistakes that can cause a voter's otherwise legitimate ballot to be rejected by state officials.
Among the common errors Pennsylvania voters have made include returning ballots without signatures, writing their own birthdates on the envelope instead of the current date and returning "naked" ballots that don't include the additional secrecy envelope that the state sends out with its mail-in ballots.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that naked ballots were invalid and should not be counted toward the final vote tally in future elections.
Such ballot errors can have a notable effect on the outcome of an election. In the 2023 primary, the Shapiro administration said that about 2.8% – or about 17,000 – mail-in ballots were rejected due to mistakes made by voters when filling them out. Similar errors resulted in more than 23,000 mail-in ballots being rejected in the 2022 general election and more than 21,000 being rejected in the 2020 general election.
While the majority of mail-in ballots rejected in the 2023 primary were nullified because they were mailed in late, about 20% of the rejections were the result of voters not writing the date on the envelope, while another 15% were rejected for being naked ballots. A little more than 8% of the mail-in ballots rejected last year were voided because voters wrote the wrong date – often, their own birthdate – on the envelope.
Pennsylvania's redesigned mail-in ballots will use distinctive colors to differentiate the inner and outer envelopes and indicate must-complete fields, like the signature and date fields shown on the new outer envelope.
In an effort to minimize these vote-disqualifying errors, the Pennsylvania Department of State teamed up with the Center For Civic Design and worked with county officials to create new mail-in ballots that election officials hope will be easier to properly complete.
The new mail-in ballot materials utilize a mix of revised instructional language, explanatory graphics and strategically-placed colors and text all intended to simplify the mail-in voting process and minimize mistakes.
Distinct colors are used to differentiate between the two envelopes and draw the voter's eye to must-complete fields like the signature and date field on the outer envelope.
The new mail-in voting materials come with a purple outer envelope to be used to mail the ballot back and a yellow secrecy envelope that voters should put their ballot in first to avoid the "naked ballot" problem that gets so many votes disqualified.
To discourage people from accidentally writing their birthdates in the field intended for the current date, the new ballots will have a "20" prefilled in the field where voters need to write the year.
"Gov. Shapiro has made it clear that the commonwealth should help people succeed, not get in their way," Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said in a statement announcing the changes. "Our hope is that these new materials will better assist voters in making sure their completed mail ballot packet is filled out correctly and can be counted."
For those who may still be confused, the redesigned ballots will also include a new full-page sheet of written instructions, complete with illustrations to help make the process as clear as possible.
The newly redesigned mail-in ballots will be available in time for the Pennsylvania's primary election on April 23, 2024
