Republicans have sued to prevent voters like King from getting a do-over. But the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for voters who make mistakes with their mail ballots to have a second chance. Now, in the final days of the presidential campaign across this critical swing state, an exhaustive volunteer-led effort is underway to find the thousands of voters like King whose ballots have been nullified.
The volunteers are motivated by the belief that everyone who wants to participate in the democratic process should have their vote counted. But volunteers also know that in a state like Pennsylvania, where polls show Harris and former president Donald Trump effectively tied, the disqualified ballots could make a difference.
“Nobody should have their ballot thrown out on a technicality,” said Shoshanna Israel, Mid-Atlantic elections director for the Working Families Party. “This is going to be an incredibly close election, and we want to make sure that every vote is counted.” Israel has organized nearly 2,000 volunteers to reach out to voters who need to cast a new ballot.
Nearly 9,000 voters’ ballots were tossed out over envelope issues in Pennsylvania. In some cases, it’sbecause of a missing signature or a wrong date on the outer envelope. Others didn’t include the secrecy envelope. The state leaves it up to the 67 counties to decide whether to notify voters and let them fix a defective ballot, creating a confusing patchwork of rules. A little more than a third of counties do not allow voters to “cure” their ballots….