WASHINGTON — Election Day is around the corner. With a record number of people voting by mail, we’re starting to see rumors swirling online about alleged problems with the process.
That is why the Verify team exists-to get you the facts.
We saw this tweet from a conservative media outlet called "The Blaze."
It reads: “Pennsylvania rejects 372,000 mail-in ballots leaving many voters confused.”
Question:
Did Pennsylvania reject 372,000 mail-in ballots?
Answer:
No, Pennsylvania rejected 372,000 mail-in ballot applications.
Our sources:
An editor’s note from The Blaze. The Pennsylvania Department of State, and elections expert Tammy Patrick from the Democracy Fund.
Our Process:
A post from The Blaze went out on Oct. 17 and within a few hours, the article had an attached editor’s note that said, “That headline misrepresented the situation. There were 372,000 mail-in ballot applications rejected.”
Our team confirmed this with the Pennsylvania Department of State. They sent us a report on the mail-in ballot application rejections. What we found in the report is 90% of those rejection applications were because voters had already applied for the mail-in ballots.
So what happened?
For that we asked Tammy Patrick of the Democracy Fund. She said a majority of those voters were selected to receive a mail-in ballot while voting during Pennsylvania’s primary.
“Now, months go by and the general election comes around, and voters think, ‘I wonder if I sent in an application for both elections and I'll do another one, just to be sure,’” Patrick said.
Patrick explained the duplicate problem is happening across the country, but it should not affect voting.
“I think it's important that voters know that even if you sent in multiple applications, you will still only receive one ballot,” she said.
So we can Verify, no, Pennsylvania did not reject 372,000 mail-in ballots, it rejected mail-in applications-- most of which were duplicates.