There’s a lot of concern in the air about mail-in ballots. Will they be counted? Will someone try to challenge or interfere with them? Won’t they take a long time to count? Some voters who applied to vote by mail are considering voting at the polls instead.
Everyone should vote as they feel best. From where we sit, if you’ve applied for a mail-in ballot, we recommend using it:
- Voting by mail, drop box or early voting center is safe. Just follow the directions, and mail your ballot by October 20th to be sure, or drop it in a drop box. Or visit one of the early voting centers. Click here for a list of drop boxes and early voting centers.
- Processing your request will likely add to lines and delays at your polling place on Election Day.
- Not using your mail-in ballot leaves you exposed to random events that could prevent you from voting on Election Day in spite of your best plans and intentions.
- Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro and his team will vigorously resist any efforts to interfere with the counting of mailed ballots.
All of that said, if you still prefer to surrender your mail-in ballot and vote in person, that’s absolutely your right and we want to make sure you know the steps to do so:
- Bring all of your mail-in ballot materials with you to the poll – the ballot and all the envelopes
- Hand over the mail-in ballot materials to the poll workers
- Your mail-in ballot will be voided and you will be issued a regular ballot for in-person voting
- You can then mark your ballot and vote
- IMPORTANT: if you think you might be missing some of the ballot materials, BRING WHAT YOU HAVE TO THE POLL ANYWAY. The poll workers will give you a provisional ballot, which will be counted once it’s been verified that you didn’t vote by mail. You can do this even if you threw away the mail-in ballot materials entirely. Bottom line: VOTE.
For more details and information, please consult our 2020 Voting Guide.
Questions? Comments? Contact your precinct committeeperson, give our hotline a call at 484-470-0570, or drop us an email at info@ttdems.com
