Pennsylvania announces redesign of provisional ballot envelopes

Luzerne County’s Election Board had voted last year to add yellow highlighting on provisional ballot envelope lines that must be signed, and the change was implemented starting with this year’s primary election.

Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Monday this highlighting is now part of a provisional ballot envelope redesign that all counties have been asked to use in this year’s November general election.

The redesign aims to decrease the number of rejected provisional ballots, allowing more eligible Pennsylvanians’ votes to be counted, the release said.

Schmidt’s release said the state’s redesigned envelopes feature a layout that clearly instructs voters which fields they must fill out, including highlighting the two places where the envelope must be signed by voters. The envelopes also streamline the process for election workers, identifying which fields they need to complete before and after the voter completes their provisional ballot.

A template shows the state is using clear marking, as opposed to yellow highlighting.

”Every registered voter in our Commonwealth should have the opportunity to cast their vote and make their voice heard in each election,” Schmidt said during a press conference in Philadelphia, according to the release. “We believe these changes to the provisional ballot envelopes will have a positive impact, just as the changes we made to mail ballot materials two years ago did.”

For counties that agree to use the new envelopes, the state is offering grant money to help with the cost, a release said.

Paper provisional ballots are cast at polling places when workers determine additional voter verification is needed. The county reviews provisional ballots last during post-election adjudication to ensure the voters are properly registered and did not cast a second ballot by mail.

Instructions are important for provisional ballots. They must be placed in a secrecy envelope, which is then inserted in an outer envelope. Three signatures — two from the voter and one from the judge of elections — are required on the outer envelope for the vote to count.

Prior Luzerne County Election Board chairwoman Denise Williams had suggested highlighting last year, saying the board was faced with provisional ballots missing outer envelope signatures after every election. The state granted the board’s request to implement the change here.

County Election Director Emily Cook had agreed highlighting would be helpful because missing signatures persist even though signature requirements are stressed in poll worker training.

The county election bureau highlighted the provisional envelopes signature lines by hand for the primary election, with plans to order pre-printed highlighting when the next supply of envelopes is needed.

Williams said Monday she fully supports the state redesign.

The state’s envelope update follows the Shapiro administration’s successful redesign of mail ballot envelopes and materials in 2023, which resulted in a 57% decrease in mail ballot rejections in the November 2024 general election, the state release said.

In that same election, 29.12% of the provisional ballots cast in Pennsylvania were rejected. The most common rejection reason was that the voter was not registered, and second in line were ballot envelopes not fully completed, the release said.

The state department received design feedback on provisional ballots from county elections officials in Philadelphia, Berks, Butler, Mercer and Greene counties, it said.