PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Provisional ballot envelopes have a new design. The goal? To make the voting process simpler and reduce the number of rejected ballots.
“We do have an important election on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and I believe that this election is the most important election in our lifetime. The stakes are getting higher,” said Omar Sabir, chairman of the City Commissioners.
City Commissioner Seth Bluestein said one of the main reasons a provisional ballot is not counted is because the voter's signature doesn't appear in two required spaces.
"So you can see in this envelope that we currently use, it's not clear where they should put two separate signatures. Whereas on the new envelope design, there are symbols here that make it very clear where the voters need to sign, with very clear instructions on the envelope that they must sign the envelope twice."
Nearly 30% of provisional ballots in the 2024 Pennsylvania general election were rejected.
The Department of State is offering grant money to counties to help cover the costs of replacing current provisional envelopes.
The new envelopes will be available for all 67 counties in Pennsylvania to use in the Nov. 4 general election.
The last day to register to vote in the general election is Oct. 20. The last day to apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot is Oct. 28.