(PatriotWise.com)- Thousands of mail-in votes were affected by an electoral “glitch,” throwing the Pennsylvania primary into turmoil. A mistake made by a business that produces ballots for numerous Pennsylvania counties rendered thousands of mail-in votes illegible.
According to Lancaster officials in the state’s sixth most populated county, the problem impacted at least 21,000 mailed ballots. Only a third of them were scanning correctly. The malfunction will compel poll workers to re-do ballots that the system cannot read, a time-consuming procedure that might take several days. According to reports, officials in the Republican-controlled county promised that all ballots would be counted soon.
Speaking to the media, Josh Parsons, a Republican and vice-chair of the county board of commissioners, explained that citizens want accurate election results on election night, not days later. However, they will not get official election results from these mail-in votes for several days. Parsons called the situation ‘frustrating’ during a press conference.
According to a report, the Lancaster Board of Elections, of which Parsons is a member, reiterated its criticism of the Act 77 bill passed in 2019, which increased mail-in voting but barred counties from accessing mail-in ballots to check for mistakes before Election Day. Further, legislation requiring counties to use a vendor to print ballots rather than having them printed in-house is “untenable,” he said.
Election regulations, according to a left-leaning report, were another reason for delays. According to Pennsylvania’s election code, election officials cannot open and process mail-in and absentee ballots before 7 a.m. on Election Day. There were more than 900,000 applications for mail-in and absentee ballots requested. This regulation had caused delays during the 2020 presidential election, too.
Election results thus far show Josh Shapiro, the attorney general of Pennsylvania, won the Democrat nomination for governor, and Ted Budd won the Republican primary for Senate in North Carolina with a boost from Donald J. Trump.
