Thousands of mail ballots remain unaccounted for in Erie as judge orders elections board to extend hours

An Erie judge on Friday ordered the county’s board of elections to remain open through the weekend after as many as 17,000 mail ballots may not have been delivered to voters who requested them and hundreds more received a ballot intended for someone else — a major issue caused by the mail ballot vendor and likely to cause vote-counting delays in a bellwether part of Northwestern Pennsylvania.

The United States Postal Service, the Erie County Board of Elections, and its mail ballot vendor, ElectionIQ, “are unable to accurately determine the delivery status” of more than a third of all requested mail ballots in the county, according to the order from Erie County Court Judge David Ridge. An additional 1,200 residents who requested mail ballots to out-of-state residences, such as universities, did not receive their mail ballots, the order said.

The mail ballot issues in Erie have persisted for weeks, after the county announced that about 300 voters received ballots intended for others in addition to their own because of errors made by Ohio-based ElectionIQ.

The judge’s order now paints a much bleaker picture just four days before Election Day: Officials estimated in hearings on Thursday and Friday that more than 375 mail voters received a ballot intended for someone else in addition to their own, and that between 13,000 and 17,000 mail ballots are unaccounted for.


https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/mail-ballots-missing-erie-pennsylvania-board-of-elections-20241101.html