Beth Ann Rosica: ‘Not in the Pollbook’ — Chester County’s election day chaos exposes deep systemic failures

When I woke up on election morning, I had no idea what was in store for me or thousands of voters in Chester County. My phone rang at 7:15am and a friend told me that neither she nor her husband were in the pollbook and they were required to vote with a provisional ballot.

I quickly got dressed and walked to my polling place in West Chester where I had the exact same experience. My husband, however, was able to vote immediately in the normal fashion because he is registered with one of the major parties. My friend, her husband, and I are all registered as independent, non-affiliated, or third-party voters.

After the poll volunteer searched fruitlessly for my name in the pollbook, I was told that due to a problem with the books, I had to cast a provisional vote. The staff consulted a secondary list of registered voters and found my name there, but they told me to move to a different line where I could vote provisionally.

A woman in line behind me was in the same boat. While the Judge of Elections tried to navigate the process, the woman expressed her dismay at the lack of organization and clarity. She commented wondering whether voters stuck with voting provisionally would hang around long enough to vote or simply leave.

While she and I commiserated about the incomprehensible situation, my husband got his regular ballot, voted, and left. Meanwhile, I waited for instructions on the provisional ballot.

The Judge of Elections handed me a green paper with instructions and asked me to fill out a large white envelope with my name, address, email address, and phone number. She told me to sign the envelope in two places and then she would give me the ballot to complete and place back in the envelope.

When I read the language for each signature spot, I stopped short because the second signature at the top of the right hand side of the envelope clearly stated that it was to be signed after completing the ballot and placing it in the envelope. I brought this to her attention, and she became slightly annoyed and told me she would hold the envelope while I completed the provisional ballot.

Once I finished my ballot, I brought it back to her, placed it in the envelope, and signed the final spot. She gave me a tracking receipt and I was finally on my way. What should have been a five-minute process turned into a fifteen-minute hassle, and I left wondering whether my ballot would even be counted because the eight-step process for provisional voting is significantly more complicated than casting a regular ballot.

At this point, similar scenarios were playing out across the county. Friends and colleagues were calling and texting me with their experiences. The county acknowledged that the pollbooks mistakenly left off all voters other than registered Republicans and Democrats.

When I contacted Commissioner Josh Maxwell about the situation, he said the supplemental pollbooks should be delivered to every precinct by noon and at that point, no one would be required to vote provisionally.

In the midst of this confusion, I assumed that every poll location would handle the situation exactly the same — voters not in the pollbook, but on the voter roll would be allowed to vote provisionally. However, this was definitively not the case.

I heard from a voter in an adjacent poll location in West Chester — literally three blocks away — that he was allowed to cast a regular ballot. The volunteer wrote his name in the official printed pollbook and told him to sign below it. Voters in other parts of the county had a similar experience.

At this point, I had enough information to write about what was happening, and once that was posted, the floodgates opened. Friends and readers throughout the county reached out to share their frustrations with what was happening.

Then it emerged that some voters were actually being turned away from voting! Several people shared their experiences where the poll staff told them to come back later after the updated pollbooks arrived.

Despite Commissioner Maxwell’s hope that the updated books would be delivered by noon at every location, the earliest delivery seemed to be around 2:30 and other precincts did not get theirs until well after 5pm.

One friend showed up twice to vote and the updated pollbook still had not arrived. She was not confident in the provisional ballot process and ended up going back a third time to ensure she could cast a regular ballot.

Several readers posted comments on the article, expressing frustration and describing varying processes in place across the county.

“Went to vote this am and realized NO Independents were on the rolls. OUTRAGEOUS!!! So we were told to come back later since they were doing a printing with Indies on it. I do find it VERY ODD that we were selectively left off the rolls and told to come back later. Guess what? A lot of people who wanted to vote may NOT come back so they have been disenfranchised by this ridiculous messup.”

There were reports of precincts running out of provisional ballots as well.

Then came the announcement that polls would stay open until 10pm as a result of the chaos created; however, it appears everyone regardless of party affiliation who voted after 8pm was required to cast a provisional ballot.

At 7pm, I wanted to see if I could change my provisional ballot to a regular ballot since my precinct allegedly received the updated pollbook. I had no faith that my provisional ballot would be counted as too many things could go wrong. So, I walked back to my polling place and told the Judge of Elections that I wanted to “spoil” my provisional ballot and cast a regular vote. She told me I could not do that. I politely informed her that I could.

We were in a standstill until she relented and called voter services. After waiting on hold for a few minutes, she informed me that I was, in fact, correct and could spoil my provisional ballot and vote regularly. I asked if she needed my provisional ballot receipt and she said no.

I thanked the Judge of Elections for her help and headed back home, satisfied that I cast a regular ballot that I knew would be counted.

Reflecting on the situation, several thoughts came to mind. First, it is truly incomprehensible that something like this occurred in the wealthiest, most highly educated county in the state. Clearly, someone in voter services made a massive mistake and selected the wrong category of voters for the pollbooks — most likely they selected the primary voters, Republicans and Democrats. No other county in the state, as far as I know, experienced the same issue. (There was a news story about a problem in Fayette County, but it was a different issue regarding iPads.)

Second, the Judges of Elections and the poll volunteers were not prepared for a problem of this magnitude. The fact that precincts were handling this differently across the board demonstrates a lack of training and communication from voter services. We cannot blame these volunteers — but voter services and its director are to blame and should face severe consequences — as are the commissioners who serve as the Board of Elections for the county.

Finally, as of this writing, there has been no statement or press conference from the commissioners or voter services to address what happened or to apologize for the mass confusion, creating more doubt and distrust in our electoral process. Taxpayers and residents deserve transparency and accountability — and sadly, if past performance is an indicator of future actions, we will get neither and will be left wondering whether our election was fair and honest.

Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.