Bucks Co. Officials Address Mail-In Ballot Confusion

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Vice Chair of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners addressed recent headlines involving mail-in ballots at yesterday's bi-monthly public meeting.

Toward the end of the meeting, Robert J. Harvie, Jr. took the opportunity to address recent confusion over two headlines that addressed issues surrounding invalid mail-in ballots that were sent to residents of Montgomery County.

Harvie Jr. cited newspaper headlines from the previous day titled that did not specifically state which county invalid mail-in ballots were sent out in. He mentioned the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer published vague headlines that could lead readers to thinking the incident happened in Bucks County instead of Montgomery County.

A printer used for creation the ballots had a "programming error" that printed both sides of the ballot on one side, making them invalid for use, according to a previous Patch article on the matter.

The Vice Chair voiced his frustration over the confusion the headlines in other outlets made.

"Certainly, you would have hoped that whoever the headlines writer was would have picked up on the fact that, by saying 'county' in a newspaper that deals with multiple counties, it could lead to a misunderstanding."

He mentioned that the "roughly 56,000" Bucks County ballots were mailed successfully the day before, and that residents can still apply for an absentee mail-in ballot through government service centers and online at votespa.com.