After delays and lost ballots, 183 Montgomery County voters finally receive them

With the primary election looming on Tuesday, 183 missing ballots were delivered Saturday to Montgomery County voters, after a delay that complicated an already challenged voting situation because Passover starts on Monday evening.

A Postal Service spokesperson said the ballots were delivered from the Jenkintown post office.

Mail ballots already had been delayed getting to county voters, said Montgomery County spokesperson Megan Alt, first because of “three necessary rounds of quality assurance” with the county’s voting system vendor, Dominion Voting Systems. That was followed by a bottleneck at the county’s ballot printer, Blair County-based NPC, after Montgomery County submitted its files on April 2.

Some voters said Friday they still hadn’t received their mail ballots even though they had been told by county officials the ballots should have arrived by then. As it turned out, delivery didn’t come until three days before the primary.

» READ MORE: The 2024 Pennsylvania primary voters guide

USPS spokesperson Paul Smith told The Inquirer on Friday there weren’t any mail delays in Montgomery County. Evidently that was a matter of semantics: What happened Friday was technically more the result of an error than a delay in service. A person familiar with the matter told The Inquirer the Postal Service had lost the ballots and then found them.

County Voter Services satellite offices in Norristown and Willow Gove will be open for extended hours Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Alt said. People who haven’t received their ballots in the mail can cancel their request there and receive a replacement ballot.

The offices with extended hours are at 425 Swede St., Norristown and 102 N. York Road in Willow Grove. After picking up a replacement ballot, voters can complete it and return it Sunday at either location — or use one of the county’s 12 drop boxes, most of which are open 24 hours, until 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The county is discouraging voters from mailing their ballots this close to primary day.

The USPS generally recommends voters mail them at least a week in advance, and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt had urged voters to return them right away in person either to a county election office or official drop box as early as this past Tuesday.

But Montgomery County voters who were originally told on April 5 their ballots were on the way were subsequently told by the county to expect them by April 15 or 16. Other voters who were told their ballot was on the way on April 12 were told they should have received them by Friday.

Montgomery County officials will meet with the county’s vendors before the general election in November “to assess their capacity” and will advocate for the state to improve its election timeline, which doesn’t certify the ballot until March 22, Alt said. Those who requested a mail ballot for the primary also have the option to surrender it and vote in person or cast a provisional ballot on Tuesday.

Not being able to actually mail in a mail ballot could be an issue for people who don’t live close to a drop box or county elections office and aren’t mobile or don’t have an easy way to get there. Under Pennsylvania law, voters cannot have others return their ballots for them except for voters with a disability who have designated a proxy in writing.

The delays have also created a limited window for observant Jews who would not vote on Saturday due to Shabbat — the Jewish sabbath — or Tuesday because of Passover. Even the opportunity to vote between the end of Shabbat on Saturday night and the beginning of Passover on Monday evening isn’t an option for everyone. With holiday preparations aside, many observers travel to be with family on the holiday and may have already left town.

Ari Adlerstein came home Friday evening to discover that his mail ballot still hadn’t arrived despite requesting it weeks ago.

Adlerstein, of Merion Station, said that the election taking place during Passover is disenfranchising Jewish voters like himself, which wouldn’t be the “end of the world” if there was a seamless mail-in process.

“But you know, after all that, not to even get your mail-in ballot, yeah, it’s deeply upsetting,” he said. “It’s one of the fundamental rights that we have, is to vote and to have our voice heard.”

His family decided to stay local for Passover this year, but most of his friends left town on Friday, or planned to do so on Sunday morning, in preparation for the Jewish holiday.

Dan Mitzner, director of government affairs for Teach Coalition — the Orthodox Union’s Jewish education advocacy group — said the community was relying on the mail option this year. Teach Coalition opened a voting education center in Lower Merion Township earlier this month as part of a six-figure effort to mobilize Jewish voters called Pennsylvania Unites.

» READ MORE: Philly-area Jewish communities prepare for a primary election that conflicts with Passover

There are Orthodox Jewish communities in various parts of Montgomery County, including Bala Cynwyd, Merion Station, Wynnewood, Elkins Park, and Fort Washington.

“The whole idea about having multiple avenues of voting is to enfranchise more voters and encourage voting,” Mitzner said. “And what you’re doing is taking away the ability to vote on election day, and now a mail-in ballot is essentially not a mail-in ballot anymore. You can’t mail it in.”

Mitzner saw the delays as incompetence on the county’s part, and Adlerstein also noted how it appears to be a Montco-specific issue. But Alt, the county spokesperson, argued that the delays could happen elsewhere.

“Unfortunately, we believe this issue could arise with other counties — this time it was Montgomery County, next time it could be a neighbor,” she said.

» READ MORE: Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija wants the county to set a national example in how to make voting more accessible.

On Wednesday, only 1.2% of mail and absentee ballots had been returned in Montgomery County, which rose to 5.8% on Thursday. That portion jumped to 26% on Friday morning, which still lagged behind surrounding areas, as Bucks, Chester, and Philadelphia Counties all had received more than 50%, and Delaware County, 45%.

USPS was provided with some Montgomery County ballots for processing and delivery on April 9 to 11, and more on Monday and Tuesday, said Smith, the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, ballots had already begun going out in Philadelphia and Chester Counties on March 28 and 29, respectively, according to Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein and Chester County Commissioners spokesperson Rebecca Brain.

“The U.S. Postal Service is committed to the secure, timely delivery of the nation’s election mail,” Smith said. “In 2024, just as we have in previous elections, the Postal Service will fulfill our role in the electoral process when public policy makers choose to utilize the mail as a part of their election system or when voters choose to utilize our services to participate in an election.”

Staff writer Katie Bernard contributed to this article.