A third-party vendor contracted by the Erie County Board of Elections to assist with printing and disseminating mail-in ballots in the battleground state of Pennsylvania suffered a software failure that could affect 20,000 voters.
ElectionIQ, an Ohio-based company assisting Erie County with its election efforts this cycle, experienced a software malfunction that caused duplicates of ballots to be placed in incorrect envelopes, hence being sent to the wrong addresses.
The blunder has resulted in a preliminary injunction being filed against the Erie County Board of Elections by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, according to court documents obtained by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
This issue was first realized on Oct. 18, when a voter informed Erie elections board and the county Voter Registration Office that they received two mail-in ballots, a correct one with their own information on it, and a faulty one with a different name and address on the return envelope.
Another 1,800 ballots are unaccounted for by the United States Postal Service, though Erie County claims they were never released by ElectionIQ in the first place.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party claims that it "has been made aware by its registered party members of numerous instances where a voter requested a mail-in ballot weeks ago but has still not received their ballot," according to documents obtained by the Capital-Star.
State Reps. Ryan Bizzarro and Bob Merski said in a joint statement that they were "committed to ensuring that all of our constituents in Erie County – Democrat, Republican, or Independent – have the information they need to vote and participate in our democracy. Our primary concern is holding free and fair elections, and always making sure that people's voting rights are preserved and protected."
Only about half of voters in Erie County who requested mail-in ballots reportedly received them by the advertised date of Oct. 28. This indicates that about 19,308 voters who requested ballots are yet to receive them. Pennsylvania's statewide return rate for mailed ballots is 67%, and Erie County's return rate is the lowest in the state.
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