What to do if you mess up your Pennsylvania mail ballot
Depending on the mistake, your county might let you to fix the error. And there are other options, too. Here's what you should know.
If you’ve made a mistake with your Pennsylvania mail ballot, don’t panic. You’ve got options.
Depending on the mistake, your county might let you fix the error. You might be able to request a new ballot. And if you can’t fix it, you can still go to your polling place and use what’s known as a “provisional ballot” that will get counted after your mail ballot is rejected.
The key in all cases is to start by contacting your county elections office for help. Find contact information for your county here. Keep in mind that counties run elections, and their procedures may vary.
Here’s what you can do if something goes wrong:
Ask for a new ballot if yours doesn’t arrive, you’ve lost or damaged it, or you just messed up and need a replacement.
Counties can replace mail ballots, which is often a go-to solution for many issues, especially if you haven’t submitted your ballot yet.
For example, your county might replace your ballot in some of these scenarios:
You’ve lost your ballot or one of the envelopes.
The ballot or envelopes are damaged.
You made a mistake and haven’t returned the ballot.
You never received your ballot. (Check when your ballot was mailed out here.)
Note that it takes some time for your ballot to make it to you once you’ve requested it.
Make sure to only use the new ballot and envelopes. Before issuing a new ballot, your county will first void the earlier one. If you try to use the old envelope, it will be rejected. You can only use the new ballot and envelopes.
If, for example, your earlier ballot shows up and you try to use it, or you accidentally put your new ballot inside the old ballot’s envelope, it will be thrown out.
You can also visit your county elections office in person to get a new ballot printed on the spot. Whether your county will replace your ballot depends on a few things, but it will do so in many cases if you haven’t yet submitted one.
Some ballot issues you can try carefully correcting on your own
Depending on the mistake, you might be able to fix it on your own. If you were supposed to fill in the bubbles next to candidates’ names but you instead marked them with little check marks, you might still be able to fill in the ovals and have the vote counted.
You might be able to fix other kinds of small errors, such as taping up a tiny tear on the ballot, but always check with your county first.
You might also be able to fix a “naked ballot” on your own if you catch it before turning it in, but be careful. Pennsylvania law requires mail ballots be placed inside a blank secrecy envelope that is then put inside the mailing envelope. Ballots withoutthat inner envelope are considered “naked ballots” that must be rejected. Some advocates suggest voters try carefully opening their envelopes, placing the ballot into the secrecy envelope, and then resealing the whole thing and taping it shut. And the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, issued new guidance to counties this year that ballots should be counted if the envelopes are taped.
Still, that can cause problems if, say, the envelope reopens in transit or appears visibly tampered with in a way that raises alarm. Be careful and always talk to the county elections office.
If you don’t want to — or can’t — get a replacement ballot, you can vote in person on Election Day.
Even if you requested a mail ballot, you can vote at your polling place — on the voting machines like everyone else — if you bring your ballot and envelopes with you.
When you check in, tell the poll worker you already requested a ballot but would like to surrender the ballot and vote on the machines instead. When they look you up in the poll books, it should say you’ve requested a ballot.
You’ll need to hand over your ballot and the outer mailing envelope — the one that you would sign and date — and sign a form to acknowledge you’re turning in your ballot to vote by machine instead.
The poll worker will take your ballot and envelope, and from there it should be the usual polling place process: Sign the poll book, cast a vote on the machine, get your “I Voted” sticker, and you’re done!
If you submitted your mail ballot but know you messed something up, your county might let you fix it.
Fatal flaws — the kind of problems that require rejecting the vote — can sometimes be obvious when a county elections office receives the ballot. For example, it’s clear when a ballot is unsigned.
Counties scan the barcodes on ballot envelopes to update the state’s voter registry, which is what powers the ballot tracker and automated emails about the status of ballots. The Department of State encourages counties to flag rejected ballots during that process, which triggers notification emails to voters letting them know their ballot can’t be counted.
Some counties go beyond that to notify voters about their flawed ballots, such as mailing postcards. If your county lets you know about a problem, it will also tell you what you can do. This process is known as ballot “curing.”
Not every county does that, so what happens if you know you messed something up? For example, you mail your ballot and then come home to discover your secrecy envelope on your kitchen table. Or you realize you submitted a naked ballot. Now what?
Call your county, because some will allow you to “cure” your ballot, and those processes vary from county to county. For an unsigned ballot, some counties will let you come in and sign the ballot envelope. Other counties won’t let you touch a ballot once it’s been submitted, but they’ll let you go through the replacement process.
Some counties won’t allow any curing. Ballot curing was part of a recent lawsuit, and counties that choose to help voters resolve ballot problems are allowed to this election — but counties aren’t required to.
If your county doesn’t allow you to fix your ballot, there’s another option: provisional ballots.
In all situations, the final option is to go to your polling place and use a provisional ballot.
No matter what happened, every voter is allowed to use a provisional ballot on Election Day.
A provisional ballot is a paper ballot meant to be used as a last resort when someone’s eligibility to vote is in question — such as if the person’s name isn’t in the poll books or they don’t have the proper identification when voting for the first time.
Provisional ballots are set aside and counted only after officials determine the vote is legitimate and that you didn’t already vote. That means if you submit a flawed mail ballot that is then rejected, you haven’t successfully voted — and your provisional ballot can be counted.
Here’s how to cast a provisional ballot:
Go to your polling place on Nov. 8. Don’t forget to check your polling place location, as it may have changed from past elections. You may want to check the status of your ballot to know whether it’s been marked as received by the county. Know that if it has, you might be listed in the poll books as having already voted, and poll workers might initially tell you so.
When you check in and give the poll workers your name, say you returned a mail ballot but would like to use a provisional ballot. You can explain more if you want, especially if they are confused, but you shouldn’t need to. If the judge of elections is unclear about what to do, ask them to contact the county elections office for guidance.
Poll workers will give you a provisional ballot envelope. Fill it out as the judge of elections and minority inspector, two of the poll workers, watch. The poll workers then fill out the envelope and give you the actual provisional ballot.
Fill out your provisional ballot, following all the instructions carefully, and put it inside the secrecy envelope. Place that secrecy envelope inside the provisional ballot envelope.
Complete the envelope, again with the two poll workers watching. They’ll sign it, too, and give you a receipt with your ballot number on it.
You’re done. If your original mail ballot is rejected, the online status tracker will say so and you’ll receive a rejection notification (if you provided your email address when you applied for the mail ballot). Don’t panic, because you expected the rejection. Counties don’t start counting provisional ballots until the Friday after Election Day, and it can take time to get through them. After about a week, you can check the status of your provisional ballot online to find out whether it was counted.
Be prepared for voting to take longer using a provisional ballot than on the machines, especially if things are busy.
And if poll workers are confused — because remember, you might be listed in the poll books as “Ballot Cast/Not Eligible,” and most people in that situation have already properly voted — remember to calmly explain the situation and request a provisional ballot.
There is, of course, one way to avoid any of this potential trouble: Follow the instructions carefully in filling out your mail ballot, including using the secrecy envelope, signing and dating the outer mailing envelope, and returning your ballot on time.