Election deadlines are fast approaching in a presidential election season marked by natural disasters News, sports, jobs

A voter places a ballot in a mailbox at Bethlehem City Hall on April 23, 2024 in Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. (Matt Smith / For Spotlight PA)

The destruction of communities and infrastructure by hurricanes that have cut a path of destruction through the Southern states is raising concerns about how an election, now just over three weeks away, will unfold.

“Election officials in these states are going to have a terrible time in the coming weeks.” said Lycoming County elections director Forrest Lehman, referring to the damage in North Carolina and Florida.

“I know that’s not the immediate concern, but that concern will arise, and for these people it’s an immediate concern because it’s going to take time just to assess the damage to the polls. Did poll workers die? How many ballots were lost in the mail? How do you assess all this, how do you recover from it? How are these people going to vote on Election Day?” he said.

Lehman pointed out that people could vote in tense situations, saying: “Elections are like Broadway. You have to find a way to make it work, but they’re going to have a hard time down there on top of all the other immediate issues they’re facing.”

In his comments to Lycoming County commissioners, Lehman reported that approximately 9,000 registered voters in Lycoming County had requested to vote by mail in the upcoming presidential election this year. Of these, a little less than half – around 4,000 – were returned.

“Around the time we were sending out those ballots, I guess about two weeks ago, the office exploded. We get turned upside down every day – a lot of foot traffic there, the mail is a mountain every day, a lot of phone calls.” Lehman said.

“This is the busiest time of the four-year election cycle.” he said, adding that people from other county departments pitched in to help.

In just over two weeks, there are two important dates that Lehman lists for county residents who want to either register to vote or request to vote by mail.

October 21 is the last day to register to vote on November 5, and October 29 is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot. The deadline for applying for a postal vote is also the Tuesday before the election.

Lehman urged anyone who received their mail-in ballot to return it as quickly as possible.

“Sometimes we get a call asking, ‘Hey, when should I send it back?’ The answer is immediate,” he said.

The deadline to return a mail-in ballot is 8 p.m. after polls close on Election Day, but he noted that returning it by mail can be problematic.

“The mail is everywhere. We’re getting people getting their ballots in two days. We get people who need two weeks. That doesn’t make sense because they take a trip to Harrisburg and a trip back and it takes two weeks.” he said.

“It’s a good idea for people to consider hand-casting their ballots to avoid mail, because unfortunately that can no longer be relied upon in the same way.” he added.

An alternative to returning it by mail is to bring it to the Voter Services Office, located on the first floor of the Third Street Plaza office building, 33 W. Third St. There is a parking lot at the back of the building. A parking garage is provided for people dropping off their ballot, so finding a parking space is not an obstacle.

“They can return it personally, but they can only return their own. The only exception to this is if a voter has a disability. They can fill out a form to indicate that they have a disability and that they need someone else to personally deliver the ballot to them.” Lehman said.

When asked by Commissioner Scott Metzger whether voters would need ID to return a mail-in ballot in person, Lehman explained “In Pennsylvania there is no personal ID requirement except in very special circumstances at the polls.”

“Someone voting for the first time ever, or for the first time at a new polling station, must provide acceptable identification.” he said.

There is also a protocol in place to ensure that the person requesting an absentee ballot is who they say they are.

“No ballot will be issued for any request received unless we link it to a registered voter. And they not only provide their name on this application, but also their date of birth and their ID number in the form of a Social Security or PA driver’s license. And when we take that information and do the ID check, we look at the entire combination of data points to make sure it connects to a real person.” Lehman said.

“When you order something online, not only do you give them the credit card, they look at the credit card number coupled with the name, expiration date (and) the three-digit security code. You can’t just make up one of these data points or the entire transaction will fail. “It’s the same with voter registration or requesting an absentee ballot – the name has to match the date of birth and the ID number, and if any of those things don’t match, a failure is created. We’ll take a look at it,” he explained.

If a voter still hasn’t returned their mail-in ballot by Election Day, they can drop it off at a polling place and then vote with a regular in-person ballot. If you do not have the ballot paper with you, you will have to vote with a provisional ballot paper, which will be counted a few days after the election.

“We need to compare the provisional ballots with the mail-in ballots that came back and make sure we haven’t already received something in the mail from that voter. So we do this check. Then we can count the provisional ballot,” he said.

He emphasized that polling stations are not drop-off points for mail-in ballots on Election Day. The only place you can return a mail-in ballot on Election Day is the Voter Services Office.

“On election day you can still do this all day until 8 p.m. at voter service,” he said.

“I actually remember in 2020 we had some people running down the hallway to the office at the very end at 7:55 p.m.” he said.

Lehman addressed the controversial issue of ballot drop boxes, emphatically stating that there are no drop boxes in Lycoming County.

He added that the electoral law reads “still” There is a policy for this, so the decision whether to use dropboxes falls to county election boards.