Pennsylvania Voter Experiences Will Vary Depending on Their County’s Understanding of Election Rules

"I Voted" stickers on a table during the Pennsylvania Primary election at St. Thomas United Church of Christ in Harrisburg, Pa., on May 17, 2022. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

It’s been two years since procedures for voting and counting election results caused controversy and division after the 2020 election.

Pennsylvania voters go back to the polls this week, with still-shaken confidence in the system, as inconsistent application of election rules abound.

Voter experiences will be different in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. For example, most counties have multiple drop boxes. In Lancaster County, there are no drop boxes for voters to put their ballots. This is something counties are allowed to determine.

Ballot drop box before it was removed from the Lancaster County building in Pa., on May, 16, 2022. Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times

Voters with mail-in ballots must walk into the board of elections and hand their ballot into an election worker.

Lancaster banned ballot drop boxes a day before the May primary election. Before that, the single drop box in the county was located about 30 steps away from the Board of Elections door.

Pennsylvania law says a voter may drop only their own ballot in the box. But around the state surveillance video footage has shown people dropping off more than one ballot.

Bucks County Commissioner and chair of the Board of Elections, Robert Harvie Jr., a Democrat, refuted the one-ballot-per-person rule last week, in a meeting.

Individuals are captured delivering more than two ballots at the drop box at 601 Westtown Road, West Chester, Pa., in May 2022. America First Legal

“Pennsylvania law does allow someone to drop off more than one ballot if they have a Designated Agent form for the person whose ballot they’re dropping off, if it’s not theirs,” Harvie said.

“Under the law, you could go to a senior center or nursing home and get 100 ballots, as long as you have 100 Designated Agent forms from each of those voters. You are allowed to bring 100 ballots; that’s the law.”

That is wrong. The Department of State’s Designated Agent form defines who can be a designated agent.

“The person you designate as your agent is only allowed to serve as a designated agent for one voter, unless the additional voter(s) live in the same household as you,” the form says.

The Epoch Times reached out to Harvie for comment.

“That’s just grotesque incompetence,” Sam Faddis told The Epoch Times.

Faddis is a retired CIA operations officer, author, and organizer of a coalition of more than 75 patriot groups across Pennsylvania that are working together on election reform and other issues.

“The guy who runs the elections for a populous county in Pennsylvania, two years after the first time we used drop boxes, and he doesn’t understand the simplest, most central points like how many ballots you are allowed to put in a dropbox.”

Undirected Ballot Fixing

Last month the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots with missing or inaccurate dates on their envelopes cannot be counted.

Those ballots are to be set aside and preserved.

But in Berks County, officials will offer voters with a chance to cure their ballot by adding a proper date on the envelope or cast a provisional ballot in person at their polling place on election day.

Some other counties are doing the same as Berks, others are not, because that is not what the court ordered.

“So, if you’re a Pennsylvania citizen, depending on where you happen to live, you will have a statewide election with completely different rules, because the counties are just making stuff up as they go,” Faddis said.

“Already, right out of the box, what we’re seeing is kind of chaos.

“We haven’t fixed the system and you’ve got election directors who do not understand Pennsylvania law at all.”

The Epoch Times asked the Berks County media spokeswoman for a comment.

Around the state there have been numerous concerns about election integrity, including some lawsuits regarding various local issues. It is likely, the processes and results of this election will be scrutinized closely when the counting is done.

The FBI will have special agents available in each field office and resident agency throughout the country to receive allegations of election fraud and other election abuses on election day.

In Pennsylvania, call 215-418-4000.