Four Montgomery County voters receive duplicate mail-in ballots

Four Montgomery County voters were mailed two mail-in ballots ahead of the general election, according to Montgomery County Communications Director Megan Alt.

Alt told MediaNews Group Monday morning that county officials initially told the Pennsylvania Department of State on Oct. 6 of a “potential situation in which a voter received two separate mail ballots.” Alt said that a further review found four voters “who received two separate, uniquely coded, mail ballots as a result of files received from the state’s system.”

“We have contacted those four voters and will ensure only one of their ballots remains viable to be voted,” Alt said in a statement. There were 87,716 people registered to vote in Montgomery County ahead of the Nov. 4 election, Alt said.

Reporting from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, indicated that some 68 ballots were possibly duplicated across seven counties, including Carbon, Dauphin, Luzerne, and Montgomery counties.

Luzurne County recorded the highest number, with 31 voters receiving duplicate mail-in ballots, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported Monday, citing figures from WVIA. Luzurne County Election Director Emily Cook told the PBS-affiliate outlet for Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania, that the “cause was an unknown problem with the state election management system, known as SURE,” which according to the Pennsylvania of State, its main protection acts as “a mechanism that prevents recording more than one ballot per voter in a single election.”

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary Jonathan Marks acknowledged the system’s deficiencies and is exploring improvements. Marks told Votebeat, as reported in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star that “resolving one issue can create another if counties don’t use the ideal method.”

Marks added there could have been a number of ways the duplicate labels were created, citing “user error as counties tried to fix an issue with the first mail ballot” or “damage to the original label” as two possibilities.

“A duplicate label’s existence does not automatically mean an error has occurred,” the Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement to Votebeat as reported in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

While the circumstances leading up to the incident were unclear, Alt stressed “our elections have many safeguards to ensure that only one ballot can be voted and counted per individual qualified electors.”

Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairman Neil Makhija, who also leads the Montgomery County Board of Elections, agreed.

“It’s not a Montco-specific error, and we would have caught this by the time we would have count[ed] the ballots, so there’s no risk of someone voting twice,” Makhija told MediaNews Group Monday morning.

Voters have until Monday, Oct. 20 to register and must request a mail-in ballot by Tuesday, Oct. 28. All ballots must be received by the time the polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4. Visit montcovotes.com for more information about elections in Montgomery County.