Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.Just days remain before Pennsylvania’s May 19 primary, when voters will select nominees for state and federal elections this November.The governorship, congressional seats, and control of the state House and Senate are all on the ballot. Some counties have already experienced issues with mail ballots, potentially affecting voters’ ability to easily cast them. Others are looking to Tuesday’s election as a chance to learn how they can make operations run more smoothly.Here’s what’s happened so far.Some counties stumble on mail ballotsIn almost every election, at least one county encounters some administrative issue that impacts voters. Whether it was Chester County leaving thousands of voters out of its poll books last November or the Department of State sending the wrong voter file to Fayette County in 2025, human error almost inevitably causes a hiccup somewhere.This year is no exception: Several counties have had issues already with their mail ballots.The highest-profile case so far involves ballots being sent to an outdated list of voters in Lehigh County, where there is a competitive primary for the Democratic nomination for the 7th Congressional District.The county mistakenly used a voter file from last year to send out this year’s mail ballots. While many of last year’s mail voters had also requested mailed ballots this year, which minimized the impact, the mixup still meant more than 4,000 voters either got a ballot they didn’t request or failed to receive one they were expecting. The county responded by issuing new ballots to affected voters, canceling invalid ballots, and contacting voters to explain their voting options.Lehigh County isn’t alone. In Butler County, near Pittsburgh, roughly 50 mail ballot return envelopes were printed without the county election office’s return address, making it more difficult for voters to return them. In York County, the county’s mail ballot vendor mistakenly sent 237 voters ballots for the wrong district. In those counties, election officials are working with USPS to deliver the ballots or reissuing correct ballots, respectively.Earlier this year, Votebeat and Spotlight PA also reported that Chester County sent out mail ballot applications with voters’ first and last names reversed, though the county and state said the applications were still valid to use.Counties looking to make improvementsLuzerne County is switching to hand-marked paper ballots and away from the touch-screen ballot-marking devices it has used since 2020. The county experienced issues with its previous voting machine vendor — such as misspellings on ballots and test ballots being left in unofficial results — and in 2025 decided to make the switch. At the time, the election director said the switch would give the county more in-house control over designing and testing ballots. Chester County, which has had multiple issues in the last year, is bringing in an outside consultant to assess the county’s election operations. A spokesperson for the county confirmed that The Elections Group, a consulting firm, will be onsite after the election “to meet with staff and observe post-election activities.”“Our goal is to use their input to support the implementation of our Voter Services Action Plan,” county spokesperson Andrew Kreider said via email, referring to the plan developed to address issues in the election department.The state was also planning a test — this one for internet-connected e-pollbooks — but postponed the experiment until at least next year because of unresolved technical questions and low county participation in the pilot program. Election directors say the devices, already widely used in the state without internet connections, can help quickly address Election Day issues and monitor turnout.What election officials are thinking about With no marquee race at the top of the ticket this primary election as both gubernatorial candidates are uncontested, election officials are expecting low turnout — and potentially a smoother Election Day.During the 2022 midterm, the Republican primary races for the U.S. Senate and governor were contested, providing a draw for voters. “This one I think is going to be a lot like last year’s primary,” said Thad Hall, the Mercer County elections director. “I think my county and a lot of counties are going to be lucky to get 25% turnout.”Weather is his biggest concern right now, Hall said, as it is for many elections. Election Day could see temperatures in the 90s, with the chance for storms in parts of the state. Those factors can both depress turnout as well as present logistical challenges, such as if power goes out at a polling place. Dauphin County Election Director Chris Spackman said right now he is working on getting the county’s pollbooks finalized and putting together the materials his poll workers will need on Election Day.There are always things election officials can’t predict that could pop up, he said, such as if a judge of elections gets sick and they need a last minute replacement.“I don’t like to predict turnout because I want 100 percent,” he said. “But realistically looking at historical numbers in gubernatorial primaries, the turnout is going to be lower than the general election.”But ideally, Spackman said, it will be a day of high turnout and wide margins.Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.
