{"id":143716,"date":"2026-03-20T12:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/143716\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:40:12","slug":"county-commissioners-asked-to-change-notification-process-for-mail-in-ballots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/143716\/","title":{"rendered":"County commissioners asked to change notification process for mail-in ballots"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of\u00a0our Civic Impact Reporting Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lebanon County Commissioners were asked Thursday, March 19, to consider changing the timing of the notification process for voters whose mail-in ballots contain an error.<\/p>\n

South Annville Township resident Michael Schroeder asked commissioners, in their roles as Board of Elections directors, if they would instruct Voter Registration officials to segregate ballots with visible mistakes on the outer return envelope.<\/p>\n

Those voters would be contacted immediately instead of on Election Day, which is when mail-in ballots are processed in Lebanon County.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were 60 mail-in ballots of the approximate 9,000 received in the November 2025 general election that contained one or more mistakes, according to an ACLU letter supplied by the organization to Lebanon County solicitor Matt Bugli. Of those 60, only six provisional ballots were cast in the last election, or 10%, by voters whose mail-in ballot contained an error.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTry to contact those voters in the days before Election Day so those voters have a chance to cast a provisional ballot and have their vote count,\u201d Schroeder wrote in an email to commissioners, which he sent in advance of the meeting and forwarded to LebTown. \u201cHave the elections office set aside mail-in ballots containing mistakes so that those voters who make an error can have an opportunity to cast a provisional ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tSouth Annville Township resident Michael Schroeder asks county commissioners to change when voters whose mail-in ballots contain an error are notified. (James Mentzer)<\/p>\n

The requested notification process is currently being employed in a majority of Pennsylvania counties, added Schroeder.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is basically giving voters a chance to correct any honest mistakes that they make when they mail in their ballots. Either there\u2019s a missing signature, or there\u2019s a missing date, or there\u2019s something wrong with the secrecy envelope,\u201d Schroeder said. \u201cOut of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, my understanding is about 54 of them have a procedure whereby they separate those ballots that have a visible mistake. They segregate them and put them in a separate pile. And then try to notify those voters to tell them there\u2019s something wrong with their ballots and they can then cast a provisional ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schroeder noted county voting officials could use the state\u2019s SURE voter system to notify voters about their mistake or possibly find another solution via a \u201csimple fix.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that the Voter Registration Office can develop and implement a simple fix to this problem so that everyone who\u2019s legally entitled to vote and mails in their ballot has their vote count \u2014 including voters who make a simple mistake like failing to sign or put the date on the outer return envelope,\u201d he wrote in an email. \u201cA simple fix along these lines would be wholly consistent with both the spirit and the letter of the 2025 PA Supreme Court decision in Center for Coalfield Justice v. Washington County Board of Elections, as explained in the attached letter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACLU letter says the Lebanon County election office has attempted to notify voters of such mistakes only beginning on Election Day during the last three election cycles, even though it could do so using the commonwealth\u2019s SURE voter registration system codes immediately upon receipt of mail-in ballot packets.<\/p>\n

It also states, \u201cAs a result, affected voters receive mere hours of notice \u2014 if any \u2014 that they will have no vote counted unless they cast a provisional ballot at their precinct.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter further states that, \u201cThis procedure does not provide Lebanon County mail-in voters with constitutionally adequate pre-deprivation notice, as required by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Center for Coalfield Justice v. Washington County Board of Elections, 343 A.3d 1178 (Pa. 2025) (\u201cCCJ\u201d).\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACLU also urges Lebanon County to bring \u201cits policy and practice into compliance with that ruling in time for the May 2026 Primary Election.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy entering SURE system codes immediately upon receipt of a defective mail-in ballot packet \u2014 as the overwhelming majority of Pennsylvania counties now do \u2014 Lebanon County will timely notify affected electors of their right to cast a provisional ballot in time to salvage their right to vote,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want every Lebanon County who has the right to vote to have a chance to cast their vote in an election,\u201d Schroeder told LebTown after the meeting.<\/p>\n

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\t\tPossible changes to how the county\u2019s voter registration office handles mail-in ballots with errors will be considered at the April 2 meeting of the Lebanon County Board of Elections. (James Mentzer)<\/p>\n

Commissioner Bob Phillips, chairman of the elections board, said the item would be added to the April 2 agenda for the next board meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s as simple as you suggest, then it\u2019ll be given a fair hearing. I can guarantee you that,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Mike Kuhn reiterated what Schroeder said was fine work by the county election staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great amount of faith that, as a matter of fact, back to our last public meeting, comments were made about questioning (voter) integrity. I don\u2019t think anybody has ever questioned our people. It takes good leadership. We have that in Sean. And it takes a lot of really good people. And I know we\u2019re all very proud of the results we get in Lebanon County in that regard,\u201d Kuhn said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz asked why commissioners couldn\u2019t decide the issue immediately instead of waiting until April 2. Phillips replied that time is needed to investigate solutions, and he preferred to discuss it then since the elections board would be convening on that date.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tLocal residents are asking the process for how voters whose envelope for their mail-in ballots contains an error are notified. (Lebtown file photo)<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand the delay. It doesn\u2019t seem like we should delay decisions on the election. Then we\u2019ll be doing what we accused the state of doing by waiting till the last minute to inform us on the elections,\u201d Litz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften we\u2019re told we need to do our due diligence,\u201d Phillips responded. \u201cI think it should be, you know, given time to study it and get an answer and then come back April 2nd. That\u2019s my opinion\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d also like to get input from Sean about the logistics within his office to be able to handle it appropriately and with integrity,\u201d added Kuhn.<\/p>\n

The Lebanon County Elections Board typically conducts meetings immediately following commissioners\u2019 meetings, the next of which will also be held on April 2. Both meetings are open to the public, with the commissioners meeting beginning at 9:30 a.m. in Room 207 of the Lebanon County municipal building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Questions about this story? Suggestions for a future LebTown article? Reach our newsroom using this contact form and we\u2019ll do our best to get back to you.<\/p>\n

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Trustworthy local news is built on facts. As Lebanon County\u2019s independent news source, LebTown is committed to providing timely, accurate, fact-based coverage that matters to you. Support our mission with a monthly<\/a> or annual<\/a> membership, or make a one-time contribution<\/a>. Cancel anytime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of\u00a0our Civic Impact Reporting Project. Lebanon County Commissioners were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[46045,564,2467,65726,65727,65728,65729,13135,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-143716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-civic-impact-reporting-project","tag-featured","tag-lebanon-county","tag-lebanon-county-elections","tag-lebanon-county-voter-registration-office","tag-lebanon-county-voters","tag-lebanon-county-voting","tag-mail-in-ballots","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}