Berks County played a role in helping to redesign provisional ballot envelopes that were used in most counties across Pennsylvania during the 2025 general election.
The new envelopes were created — with input from election officials in Berks and four other counties — in an effort to lower the number of provisional ballots that are rejected.
Voters are asked to fill out provisional ballots when election officials cannot immediately determine a voter’s eligibility. They are sealed in envelopes until the county board of elections determines whether they can be counted.
State officials say the changes to those envelopes appear to have paid off.
The new envelopes clearly identify which fields voters must fill out, including highlighting the two places where the voter must sign. The envelopes also clearly mark which fields election workers are to fill out.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced in December that counties using redesigned provisional ballot envelopes in the general election saw an 11.3% decrease in the number of provisional ballots that were rejected for envelope errors compared to the previous year.
Nine counties opted out of using the new envelopes: Bedford, Bradford, Crawford, Franklin, Huntington, Lackawanna, Lycoming, Monroe and Wyoming.
“Our goal remains ensuring every registered voter in our commonwealth can cast their vote and have it counted in every election,” Schmidt said in a statement announcing the data. “As with the changes to mail ballot materials two years ago, these improvements resulted in more registered voters being able to make their voices heard in November’s election.”
Schmidt said that in counties where the new envelopes were used only 4.4% of provisional ballots were rejected for envelope errors, down from 4.96% rejected in the 2024 general election. After adjusting for voter turnout, an analysis comparing the number of provisional ballots rejected in each election showed that 11.3% fewer ballots were rejected for incomplete information on envelopes in 2025.
Local input
Before the July announcement of the redesigned envelope, the state Department of State received feedback from county election officials in Berks, Philadelphia, Butler, Mercer and Greene counties, who had all highlighted the need for a more user-friendly envelope design for both voters and poll workers.
Despite seeing improvement with the new ballots statewide, local election officials said there was not much impact in Berks — at least not yet.
Berks County Elections Director Anne Norton said the changes made no significant difference in Berks, but that is most likely attributed to lower turnout than in a presidential election. She said they expect to see more of an impact as more federal offices will be on the ballot in 2026.
“The new design is just better to understand,” she said.
Norton said she was pleased she could be part of the redesign process, noting Berks was invited to participate because it is one of only three counties in the state that by law must provide all election materials in Spanish at some precincts.
She said the biggest issue with the old ballots, which has been addressed with the new version, is people would fail to sign the envelopes in both areas where they were required to do so.