Northampton County has a 70.62% mail ballot return rate as of Oct. 29 — just above Pennsylvania’s return rate of 69.4%, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.
Of the 2,088,442 ballots requested in the state, 1,448,841 have been filled out and returned by voters.
This number has dropped since the 2020 presidential election, when 2,629,672 ballots were returned of the 3,087,524 requested in the state.
Despite this decrease, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Oct. 23 that any voter whose mail ballot is rejected for not following technical procedures can cast provisional ballots in person on Election Day.
In 2020, Pennsylvania rejected more than 34,000 mail ballots.
Mail-in ballots are rejected each election due to minor voter errors including not using the secrecy envelope, voters writing their birthdate instead of the current date and voters forgetting to sign, according to the Pennsylvania Pressroom.
The recent ruling in Genser v. Butler County Board of Election focused on determining whether the appellate court had erred in interpreting the state’s election code in Butler County when allowing voters who submitted a timely but defective ballot to submit a provisional ballot.
On Oct. 28, the Republican National Committee asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the appellate court’s interpretation of the election code in Butler County.
The state supreme court agreed with the decision in a 4-3 opinion, stating the election code was meant to allow “citizens to exercise their right to vote, not for the purpose of creating obstacles to voting.”
Voters can track their mail-in ballot on Pennsylvania’s election ballot status website.
The opportunity to cast a provisional ballot is only for citizens whose county notified them that their mail-in ballot will be rejected, which happens in most counties, but not all, according to the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
Northampton County will contact voters by phone or mail if no number is available — to notify voters of errors with their mail ballots. The voter may then fix their ballot in person at the county election office, according to the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
In Northampton County and the state of Pennsylvania, registered Democratic voters have a higher mail-in ballot return rate than registered Republicans.
However, federal law doesn’t allow ballots to be counted until Election Day. So while a voter may be registered for one party, their vote is unclear.
Last year, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced his plan to update mail ballot materials with redesigned envelopes and instructions with revised language to better inform voters on how to properly fill out and return mail-in ballots.
These changes were enacted after about 2.8% of mail-in and absentee ballots cast in the 2023 primary were rejected.
The updated forms were rolled out in the 2024 primary election, where Pennsylvania counties rejected 9.6% fewer ballots, according to Spotlight PA.
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