Voter says she received incorrect mail-in ballot from Allegheny County

The state said 948,000 Pennsylvanians have applied for mail-in ballots ahead of the primary election.

The coronavirus forced the state to reschedule the election for June 2, and for the first time, you don’t need an excuse to vote by mail in Pennsylvania.

Channel 11′s Joe Arena spoke to a voter who got a mail-in ballot sent to them, but the ballot had the wrong candidates on it.

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“I try to stay pretty aware of who’s on the ballot, and that kind of thing I’m a little embarrassed, but I’m also pretty upset that I didn’t get the right one to begin with,” Jody Handley, of Squirrel Hill, said.

Handley is an experienced voter and has even worked on local campaigns, so when she received her mail-in ballot for this June‘s primary, filling it out was hardly a challenge. But it wasn’t until after she mailed it back in that she realized she voted for the wrong person.

“I noticed that (state Rep.) Summer Lee was on the ballot, and I took very special note of it because I’ve worked with her in the past,” Handley said.

Handley ended up voting for Lee. But by seeing the familiar name, she forgot that her representative is actually Dan Frankel, whose name was not on the ballot she received.

Handley contacted Frankel’s office and let them know her ballot was incorrect. Then a call was made to the county board of elections.

“They were going to send me a new ballot and then find my ballot when it came in because the mail-in ballots have your name on them on the outside of them and discard that one so you’re saying that my vote will count,” Handley said.

Channel 11 contacted the county to find out if there have more instances of incorrect ballots being sent to voters. County officials told us they’ve had a few calls about this issue, and they’re all being noted and corrected.

You can also be proactive by going to Allegheny County‘s website and doing a search for sample ballot. We pulled up Jody’s ballot, and Frankel is listed as her representative. So just type in the words "sample ballot" on the website's search bar and you’ll be directed to the page where you can find your ballot.

If you do receive an incorrect ballot in the mail, Allegheny County officials say to call the elections department directly and report it.

To make sure problems like this are addressed before ballots are mailed out, the county said it has a question-and-answer process in place with workers to spot-check all items being mailed out to ensure that they are correct.

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