{"id":308219,"date":"2026-10-16T21:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T21:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308219\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T21:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T21:12:09","slug":"some-north-whitehall-residents-to-get-new-mail-in-ballots-due-to-wording-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308219\/","title":{"rendered":"Some North Whitehall residents to get new mail-in ballots due to wording error"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A question on mail-in ballots sent to North Whitehall Township residents was worded incorrectly, so new ballots are being sent out to 1,822 people, the Lehigh County Election Office confirmed Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The question, regarding an earned income tax increase aimed at raising $1 million each year to preserve open space, should have read:<\/p>\n<p>Do you favor the imposition of an additional earned income tax at the rate of 0.15% by North Whitehall Township to be used to finance the acquisition of interests in real property to preserve open space?<\/p>\n<p>A slightly different version of the question appeared on the original ballots.<\/p>\n<p>Affected voters will receive a replacement ballot and letter within the next few days, Elections Chief Michael Paston said. The letter will advise affected voters to complete and return the new ballot, even if they\u2019ve already returned the original one. The new ballot will replace the old one.<\/p>\n<p>Ballots can be returned by mail, in person at the county election office, or placed in a drop box. The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2026\/10\/14\/what-to-know-about-on-demand-mail-ballots-and-where-to-drop-off-your-ballots-in-the-lehigh-valley\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> closest drop boxes<\/a> are in Whitehall Township and Slatington.<\/p>\n<p>Ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on election night.<\/p>\n<p>North Whitehall Township is asking residents to decide if they would like to initiate a .15-mill earned income tax dedicated to farmland and open space preservation. The initiative would bring the township an estimated $1 million per year, officials said, and the money raised could only be used for open space purposes, including preservation, acquisition, maintenance and recreation-related improvements.<\/p>\n<p>North Whitehall officials say the question was created to address residents\u2019 concerns about mounting pressure from developers, and to pay for the preservation of more farmland. Currently, the township has applications from 10 property owners interested in preserving more than 312 acres of land. The existing tax only generates about $160,000 annually, which is sufficient to preserve roughly one property each year.<\/p>\n<p>According to North Whitehall\u2019s website, the average household\u2019s taxes would increase by an estimated $165.20 annually, or about $13.77 per month, if the measure passes.<\/p>\n<p>If the referendum is approved, North Whitehall\u2019s 0.1-mill preservation property tax would be eliminated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A question on mail-in ballots sent to North Whitehall Township residents was worded incorrectly, so new ballots are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,836,182,139,50,432],"class_list":["post-308219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-election","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308219","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=308219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}