Cure your ballot: 550+ Philly mail voters have a chance to fix errors

Are you one of the more than Philadelphia mail voters whose ballot is at danger of not being counted Or are you among the voters in zip code who may have received an incorrect ballot If you think you might be check the lists posted below for your name and read on for instructions on how to fix the problems and make your vote count in the May primary electoral contest Address ID and ballot prep mistakes The first group of voters include those who already returned their mail ballot but made errors that put them at vulnerability of not being counted Others never received their ballot in the first place The Office of City Commissioners has been updating its list of ballots that have errors or are undeliverable The number is relatively small compared to the thousands of people with mail ballot problems during general elections but could grow as more ballots are received The issues include No signature on the exterior envelope No date on the exterior envelope Incorrect date on the envelope No secrecy envelope aka a naked ballot Undeliverable possibly due to a wrong address Unverifiable identification Elections executives haven t yet started counting the votes in the mail ballots they re not allowed to do that until the polls open at a m on May per Pennsylvania law But Philadelphia has machines that sort the sealed ballots in advance separating them into groups by zip code The machines can tell if a secrecy envelope is missing just by the weight of the whole mail ballot package and administrative staff can tell by looking at the outer envelope if the date or signature isn t there See the first searchable list toward the bottom of this page to check if you need to fix your ballot How to fix a flawed mail ballot Particular of the Philadelphia voters on the list are marked as having unverifiable identification They should fill out an ID verification form and submit it along with a picture or photocopy of an acceptable ID if available to phillyelection phila gov or via fax to - They can also call - Those are due by Tuesday May The other voters on the list made errors when completing their ballots or their ballots were never delivered to them because the addresses were wrong or there was a trouble at the post office They can get a replacement ballot at the County Board of Elections office in City Hall Room or any of the city s satellite balloting offices The City Hall office is open a m to p m Monday through Friday and from a m to p m on Saturday and Sunday It can be reached at - The satellite offices are also open during the same hours weekdays a m to p m and a m to p m on weekends Replacements can be filled out and submitted on the spot or deposited in one of the city s a multitude of secure drop boxes here s a map Check our procrastinator s guide to all the candidates for a refresh on who s who Ballots can also be mailed in but since there s not much time left before the electoral contest voters are strongly advised to drop them in person They must be received at the Board of Elections by p m on May and postmarks don t count Mail ballots may not be turned in at polling places on Electoral contest Day If you or someone you know is on the list but can t get to an voting office in time due to a disability they can authorize a designated agent to pick up and or return their completed ballot A designated agent form is available at the City Commissioners website If you re on the list but aren t able to get a replacement using the instructions above you can request a provisional ballot at your polling place on Ballot Day Provisional ballots are the last to be counted Below is a searchable list of ballots with errors as of May For the latest updated version of the list click here to visit the City Commissioners website Replacing incorrect ballots The Board of Elections is also reporting that another less common type of ballot snafu occurred this month Because of a vendor processing error that happened on May about voters whose mailing addresses are mostly in the zip code may have received the wrong ballot They ballots may include the wrong races that is contests they re not eligible to vote on per the Commissioners The board is notifying all the potentially affected voters and has already mailed them replacement ballots The new ballot packets have REPLACEMENT BALLOT ENCLOSED printed in red on the outer envelope and include an insert explaining the vendor processing error Check the second list below to see if you re one of the affected voters If you haven t received a replacement ballot or you prefer to pick up one in person visit the Board of Elections office in City Hall or a satellite electoral process office You can also call the board s main number at - -VOTE The same rules mentioned above about designated agents and provisional ballots apply to the replacement ballots List of voters with fixable ballot flaws Here s the first list of voters who made errors with their mail ballots that need to be fixed const iframe document getElementById newspack-iframe-h fRZ v SWGj const timerId setInterval function iframe src iframe src iframe onload function clearInterval timerId List of voters who got the wrong ballot Here s the second list of voters in zip code who may have received the wrong ballot const iframe document getElementById newspack-iframe- djzRLJyBXQE const timerId setInterval function iframe src iframe src iframe onload function clearInterval timerId This story is a part of Every Voice Every Vote a collaborative project managed by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism The William Penn Foundation provides lead sponsorship for Every Voice Every Vote in and with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism Comcast NBC Universal The John S and James L Knight Foundation Henry L Kimelman Family Foundation Judy and Peter Leone Arctos Foundation Wyncote Foundation th Century Foundation and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation To learn more about the project and view a full list of supporters visit www everyvoice-everyvote org Editorial content is created independently of the project s donors The post Cure your ballot Philly mail voters have a chance to fix errors appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY