Elections

Nearly 29,000 Pennsylvania Voters Reportedly Receive The Wrong Mail-In Ballots

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Elizabeth Weibel Contributor
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Officials say nearly 29,000 Pennsylvania voters received the wrong ballot because of a programming and printing error from the company responsible for printing and mailing the county’s ballots, according to a Wednesday report from TribLive.

Election officials were first notified of the error on Friday, Elections Division Manager David Voye told TribLive. The incorrect ballots were reportedly part of a batch mailed out to voters on Sept. 28 by Midwest Direct, the company which prints and mails the ballots. A total of 28,879 voters were affected by the error, according to TribLive.

Officials said they were notified about the issue by 20 Allegheny County residents who claimed they had ended up with the wrong mail-in or absentee ballots. The issue ended up being a “ballot image mapping error,” according to Midwest Direct.

Voters who ended up receiving the incorrect ballots will be sent new, correct ballots, Voye told TribLive. The replacement ballots should be delivered by next week and any incorrect ballots that have been returned will be put aside and not be opened or counted, Voye added. (RELATED: Voter Registration Website Goes Down On Final Day Due To Cut Wire Cables, Says Virginia’s Department Of Elections)

County officials said they stopped and destroyed roughly 19,500 ballots that were set to be mailed out after the problem was first reported on Friday, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“This was a failure on behalf of our contractor that impacts too many of our voters,” said Voye. “I apologize for it and commit to you that I will do everything in my power to ensure that we are not plagued by any other such issues.”

The Elections Division will reportedly be rolling out an online search feature to allow voters to have the option to search using their name or voter identification number to see whether they have an incorrect ballot. Voters will also reportedly be able to use Pennsylvania’s online ballot tracker to see when their ballot was mailed out.