City officials urge Philadelphians to return, track, fix mail ballots

Between misinformation, new protocols and a ballooning list of legal challenges to the voting process, it’s fair to say that Pennsylvanians are experiencing some nerves around the voting process. And with just days to go until the election, all eyes are on Philadelphia — a critical source of Democratic Party votes in the most-watched swing state of the year. 

A list of over 3,000 ballots with potentially disqualifying “flaws” in Philadelphia has not helped alleviate any of that tension. City officials held a press conference Thursday morning to call attention to that list and other mail-in ballot concerns.

“We have a number of flawed ballots in the city of Philadelphia,” Councilmember Isaiah Thomas said. “We want to push this into the forefront so people can do their due diligence to check on your ballot.”

Thomas and others urged voters to return their mail-in ballots and monitor the status of their ballot with the Department of State tracker. They also emphasized that Philly residents should take some time to check the list of flawed ballots for any familiar names.

“It’s Halloween, but this is no trick. Your vote may be at risk of not being counted,” Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said. “Every Philadelphian should take a look at this list and search for their family members, friends, and neighbors.”

RELATED: Cure your ballot: 3,000+ Philly mail-in voters have a chance to fix errors

That list of potentially-defunct ballots has some disparities, according to Thomas. He said his office observed that “people of color are significantly more likely to have their ballot be in limbo than any other demographic.”

Commissioner Omar Sabir linked that to low rates of literacy in Philadelphia. 

“Philadelphia is a very interesting city,” Sabir said. “You have about 300,000 people who live in Philadelphia that lack basic literacy. That’s always been an issue.” 

Older adults are another group disproportionately affected by ballot errors, according to Committee of Seventy President Lauren Cristella. 

The percentage of flawed ballots in the total pool of returned mail-in ballots is around 2% right now, Cristella told Billy Penn. Because the number of returned ballots is always increasing, the proportion that have a deficiency could continue to change.

“Ideally, the number would be at 1%. That’s what it’s been when there’s a hustle to get people to fix these ballots,” Cristella said. “Worst-case scenario is, like, 3%, God forbid. That could really impact the outcome of the election.”

When it came to the overall return rate of mail-in ballots, Sabir expressed concern. 

“Our return numbers are low,” Sabir said. “I’ll be honest with you, it’s low.” 

Philadelphians have returned about 68.5% of their mail-in ballots as of Thursday, Oct. 31. That’s not much different from the last general election (the percentage of returned ballots Wednesday, one week out from the election, was similar to what it was on that corresponding day in 2020). 

The city’s return rate in comparison to the state as a whole, though, does look different. Around this time four years ago, Philly’s return rate was a little higher than that of the state overall. This year, it seems other counties have caught up: the total return rate for the state as a whole is about 74%, and Philly currently sits sixth from the bottom in return rate across all 67 counties.

“I think it is just this hustle to get them in,” Cristella said. “I think people might wait until the last minute. I think some people are thinking about whether or not they want to spoil [ie, return] that ballot and show up on election day and vote in person.”

Experts caution that early voting numbers can’t tell us much about what the count will be on election day. But in Philly, the urgency to get every vote tallied is higher than ever. 

“This election will be won or lost by a few thousand votes in our state,” Gauthier said, “and we will be living with the consequences of this election for the rest of our lives.”

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