Some Allegheny Co. Ballot 'Secrecy' Envelopes Reveal Identities

PITTSBURGH, PA—A few early return ballots in Allegheny County have barcodes that reveal the voter's identity printed on secrecy envelopes rather than on declaration envelopes, county election officials said Thursday. The mistake was attributed to a vendor machine calibration error.

The secrecy envelopes are labeled "Official Election Ballot." The barcode on some contains a nine-digit number and the voter's name. The information, meant for the declaration envelopes, is used to track the voter’s ballot and give credit for having cast a vote in the upcoming Nov. 2 election.

Thus far, 30 ballots have been found with the error - 29 were caught by county workers and one by a voter. The ballots, which had no identifying barcode when run through the mail sorting machine, were manually entered into the system so that the voter received credit for returning their ballot.

The ballots returned to date with the issue have been segregated until "processes and legal remedies have been finalized," elections division officials said in a prepared statement. Any other ballots caught with the error also will be segregated.

The county law department and the board of elections solicitor are preparing to take legal action to ensure the votes count while also preserving the voter's privacy.

Any voter who hasn't returned their ballot but is affected by the vendor error is asked to contact the elections division to receive a replacement secrecy envelope that actually is secret. Voters also can go to their polling place on Election Day, surrender the entire ballot packet and vote in person.

As of Thursday morning, nearly 36,000 ballots have returned to the elections division.

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