SECURITY OF VOTER REGISTRATION

When citizens register to vote, they must provide some form of identification such as a partial social security number,  driver’s license number or PennDOT ID card.  They must also sign and swear to the accuracy of the information with fines and/or a prison sentence for false statement. 

Beginning in September 2023, Pennsylvania joined 23 other states in implementing Automatic Voter Registration when applying for a driver’s license.  Applicants must provide proof of identity, residency, age and citizenship.

The Board of Elections (BOE) regularly cross checks all registrations through ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization created by and comprised of state election officials from around the United States. Founded in 2012, ERIC is funded and governed by the 31 states which have chosen to join.  This system looks for duplicate registrations across the country.  ERIC has proven to be an effective tool to help election officials maintain more accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting.

The BOE regularly purges the voter rolls.  Voter registrations are removed from the pollbooks due to death, relocation or inactivity for five years or two Presidential elections (following notification from the BOE).  Bipartisan legislation has been introduced to allow ERIC to be used to identify and remove the names of registered voters who have died.

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SECURITY OF ELECTION EQUIPMENT

All voting machines, E-pollbooks (electronic pollbooks which have replaced printed pollbooks), printed ballots and materials are kept in Bucks County’s secure Elections Warehouse with 24-hour video surveillance and professional security personnel. No voting equipment is ever connected to the internet.

Bucks County has 306 voting precincts.  Each precinct receives updated lists of the registered voters in that precinct along with ballots designed and barcoded for each precinct – that means that there are 306 versions of the ballot in Bucks County alone! The barcode is not connected to any individual voter, but only to the precinct in which it is cast.

Before every election, staff from the BOE tests all voting machines, two for each precinct, by running decks of sample ballots and verifying the results.  Once the equipment is checked out, all materials for each precinct are secured in individual cages, along with blank ballots and other materials, to be transported by County personnel to each precinct.

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SECURITY WHEN VOTING BY MAIL

A registered voter who wishes to vote by mail must complete an application for a ballot, providing identifying information.  The Board of Elections cross checks this information with voter registration rolls before the ballot is mailed out. 

Each ballot is sent with a yellow “Secrecy Envelope” and an outer “Return Envelope”.  The return envelope for each Mail-in ballot has a unique barcode identifying the person to whom the ballot is sent. This barcode is used to confirm that the voter’s ballot has been received once it is returned to the BOE. There is no information connecting the voter’s identification to the actual ballot itself.

Once a voter completes their ballot, they must seal it into the yellow Secrecy Envelope, and then seal that envelope into the Return Envelope.  They must then sign and date the declaration on the back of the Return Envelope.  Ballots without the Secrecy Envelope or unsigned or undated ballots will not be counted.

The Secrecy Envelope is yellow and the postage-paid Return Envelope has a small hole punched through the front of the envelope.  This  allows the Board of Elections to see at once whether the voter has returned a “naked ballot” – one without the Secrecy Envelope.  The voter can then be notified and given time to fix the issue.

To return a mail-in ballot through the U.S. Postal Service, voters should post it at least a week before the election to ensure that it arrives at the Board of Elections by 8:00 p.m. on election day.  Alternatively, a voter can return his own ballot at one of the county’s official Drop Boxes (for locations, see https://buckscounty.gov/1417/Drop-Box-Locations ). Each drop box in the county is staffed by a Board of Elections employee while open and is locked when not in use. All boxes are under 24/7 video surveillance.  Voters are only allowed to return their own ballot, with the exception of those authorized as Designated Agents of another voter.

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SECURITY AT THE POLLING PLACE

Before the polls open on Election Day, the Judge of Elections unlocks the secure cage and sets up the polling place.  Ballot scanners and accessible voting equipment are activated using unique keys and passwords.

There are multiple poll workers at every precinct:

• Judge of Elections – Overseer of the poll on Election Day.
• Majority/Minority Inspectors – Help check the voters in with the poll book.
• Clerks – Help check the voters in/distribute paper ballots.
• Machine Inspectors – Help voters with questions when scanning their ballots/facilitate lines.

Every polling place has a Constable whose duty is to keep the peace and maintain order at the polls. (NOTE: constables are not necessarily full-time in every precinct)

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SECURITY WHEN VOTING IN-PERSON

When a voter arrives at the polling place, they sign in the E-pollbook which lists all the registered voters in that precinct. Poll workers confirm that each voter is in the correct precinct and that their signature matches the signature on their registration. The voter is then given a paper ballot specific to their precinct.  

Paper ballots are the most secure method of voting because every original ballot, the one each voter completed, is retained in a secure BOE location for at least 22 months, in case of any recounts.  There is no reliance on the accuracy of electronic equipment.

Once issued a ballot, the voter completes the ballot in ink behind a security screen.  If a mistake is made on the ballot, a voter may request a new ballot from the Judge of Elections; the old ballot is marked “SPOILED” and retained in a secured envelope. 

The completed ballot is then taken by the voter to one of the scanners and fed into the machine.  Once scanned, each ballot drops into a locked bag.

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SECURITY FOR PROVISIONAL BALLOTS

If a voter’s name is not found in the E-pollbook, they may be directed to another precinct, or they may vote using a Provisional Ballot.  If the E-pollbook shows that the voter applied for a Mail-in or Absentee Ballot but that ballot has not yet been returned (and the voter does not have the uncompleted ballot and all envelopes), they can vote using a Provisional Ballot.

Following the election, all provisional ballots are reviewed and only verified ballots are counted in the election tally. The names of all those who submitted provisional ballots are checked against the names of all those who voted by mail or at other polling places; in the case of duplicates, the provisional ballot will not be counted.  Voters whose provisional ballots are rejected are notified by email (if they provided their email address when applying for their ballot).

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SECURITY WHEN TALLYING THE VOTE

Before the election as Mail-in and Absentee ballots are received at the BOE, they are scanned and sorted into precincts (using the barcode on the return envelope) and are kept sealed in a secure location at the BOE until Election Day.

If a voter returns a ballots without the yellow security envelope (visible through a hole punched in the outer envelope), or without the required signature and date, they can be notified so they can correct the mistake if time permits.

Starting at 7:00 a.m. on Election Day, county officials begin opening the outer mail-in ballot envelopes, separating them from the inner, yellow, security envelopes.  They then remove and stack the ballots to be fed into high-speed scanners.  The scanned results are only accessed and disclosed after all ballots are counted.  Because Pennsylvania law prohibits any mail-in ballot being prepared for scanning prior to election day, the count of these ballots may not be available for some time after the close of the polls.

Once the polls close, the Judge of Elections at each voting precinct prints three copies of the vote tapes from each scanning device. One poll worker reads out the totals from each machine and three or four other poll workers  record the results in ink on official canvass sheets and then combine the  totals from all scanners.  The totals on all sheets must match.  Poll watchers from each political party are invited to be present and record the results as they are read. Separate write-in vote tapes are printed and the votes are read and recorded. Poll tapes from each scanner and canvass sheets are sealed into appropriate envelopes for return to the Board of Elections.

A “Certificate of Votes Cast” is completed and signed by all the poll workers.  A copy of the recorded totals and vote tapes from each scanner are given to the Minority Inspector to be kept for one year.

After the close of polls on election night, the results from all 306 voting precincts are delivered to the Board of Elections by each Judge of Elections where the results are totaled.  The final result includes tallies from all scanning devices,  all verified Provisional Ballots and all Mail-in / Absentee ballots (including overseas and military ballots).  It takes time to compile all of these votes and results might not be immediately available, especially in high turnout, close races.

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SECURITY WHEN VERIFYING THE RESULTS

Following the election, the Board of Elections must verify the results by conducting a statistical analysis of a random sample (actual ballots are pulled) of at least 2% of the ballots cast or 2000 ballots, whichever is fewer. 

For statewide races,  “risk-limiting audits” are also conducted which use statistical methods to confirm that voting systems have tabulated accurately and that a full hand count would produce the same result. In a risk-limiting audit, more ballots are checked if the race is close, and fewer if the results are far apart.

If discrepancies are found or suspected, a hand count of voters’ original paper ballots can be used to verify the tally.

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