The critical swing state of Pennsylvania has seen 372,000 mail-in ballots denied by election officials.
The significant majority – more than 90 percent – was denied as duplicates because individuals who requested mail-in ballots for the state’s earlier primary had forgotten they selected mail-in voting for the general election.
According to ProPublica, outside activist groups have contributed to confusion over the process of selecting mail-in ballots over in-person voting:
“Voters have also been baffled by unclear or inaccurate information on the state’s ballot-tracking website, and by a wave of mail ballot applications from political parties and get-out-the-vote groups.”
The mail-in ballot rejections have also inundated Pennsylvania voting officials with work, as Marybeth Kuznik, elections director in Armstrong County, noted “the volume of calls we have been getting has been overwhelming.”
“It’s been preventing her office from working on anything else. It has been almost like a denial of service attack at times because it seemed that sometimes all I could get done was answer the phone,” she continued.
