Category 1: Voters who changed their party registration in the past year.<\/p>\n
To address this error, the county has canceled the original ballot and mailed voters their corrected ballot.<\/p>\n
Category 2: Voters who moved and did not initially receive a ballot at their current address.<\/p>\n
To address this error, voters received 2026 primary ballots to their current address.<\/p>\n
Category 3: Ballots issued to voters who requested a mail ballot in 2025 but have subsequently passed away.<\/p>\n
To address this error, these mail ballots have been canceled.<\/p>\n
Category 4: Ballots issued to voters who requested a mail ballot in the 2025 primary but did not request a mail ballot for the 2026 primary.<\/p>\n
To address this error, voters have been contacted with options for voting.<\/p>\n
Even if the voters received an official mail-in ballot that matches their party registration because of this error, their ballots will not be valid.<\/p>\n
![\"Outside](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/29a60b54-c6c4-44ae-9d49-d9379306dcc3-videoframe_6908.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Outside of the Lehigh County Government Center on Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. (WHP)<\/p>\n
Officials say the problem was identified by newly appointed Chief Clerk of Elections Michael Patson during his first day on the job. The position had been vacant since March following the resignation of the former chief clerk.<\/p>\n
Patson said he immediately began working to fix the problem. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe immediately jumped into action to identify what voters would be affected,\u201d Patson said. \u201cWe made sure we communicated with them through letters, through the press, got the word out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, election staff say they have been working around the clock to contact impacted voters and explain how they can still cast valid ballots before Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
Patson brings previous election administration experience to the role, having worked as first deputy clerk of courts in both Bucks County and Montgomery County. He said the county\u2019s focus now is making sure every eligible voter still has an opportunity to participate.<\/p>\n
“We’re answering the phones, we’re being patient, and we’re talking people through it,” Patson said. <\/p>\n
The mistake is drawing criticism from local Republicans, who are calling for additional oversight and accountability.<\/p>\n
The Lehigh County Republican Committee is asking the state to launch an independent bipartisan investigation into what it describes as an \u201cegregious procedural failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehigh County Republican Chairman Joe Vichot told CBS 21 he believes the issue highlights broader concerns about quality control inside the county election office.<\/p>\n
What I’ve been learning is that there’s a systemic problem at the Lehigh County election office and quality control, having policy and procedures in place. So if somebody in the office leaves – especially the election clerk – you need to have a system in place that will have the continuity to continue on without missing a beat. We’ve always known that was not the case. There’s obviously other steps in there that’s just not happening. And so I’m calling for this investigation because I think we need to start fresh.<\/p>\n
Siegel spoke to CBS 21, defending the county\u2019s response:<\/p>\n
First and foremost, the county was extremely transparent. We owned the human clerical mistake. And we made sure to communicate to the public very quickly what happened, how it happened, how we were going to prevent it in the future. And we communicated with every voter that was affected so that they understood exactly how they could cast their ballot. I understand investigations when things are hidden or when the public isn\u2019t in the know, but we have been nothing but an open book. And we have taken every step to rectify it.<\/p>\n
County officials say safeguards are already being added to prevent a similar issue in future elections, including changes to how voter files are stored and accessed by election staff.<\/p>\n
Despite the confusion surrounding the ballots, some voters told CBS 21 they still trust the process and remain confident their votes will count.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at our ballot and recognized it was a valid ballot,\u201d voter Seymour Traub said. \u201cVoting by mail is very important, especially for senior citizens like myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the primary election approaches, county leaders are continuing to urge voters not to lose confidence in the election system.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone that was affected knows exactly how to fix it,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cWhen you cast your vote lawfully, it will be counted, your voice will be heard, and our elections are going to be run very well on Election Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lehigh County election office can be contacted at 610-782-3194.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 With just days remaining before Tuesday\u2019s primary election, thousands of Lehigh County voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-192768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192768","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=192768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}