As director of Lebanon County’s voter registration/elections office, Sean Drasher is on a mission this summer.
Drasher and staff are meeting with nursing home employees across Lebanon County to share what is and isn’t permitted when working to ensure their residents are able to vote in the election.
Last week, Drasher met with staff at Cornwall Manor to answer their questions and provide non-legal feedback about election procedures. LebTown attended the educational session as a media representative.
Drasher said the effort was conducted by his office since it gets numerous calls regarding nursing home residents voting in elections.
“One area we always get a lot of questions is the law around elections and nursing home residents,” he said. “It’s a mess, the law is an absolute mess. It’s not because of neglect in the law, but because there’s a gray area that is on a case-by-case basis. You can’t write law around that.”
That can be problematic for nursing home staff.
“That puts you guys in an awkward position, legally sometimes, with residents with how much or should we even help at all,” said Drasher. “You could see that coming. What I didn’t see coming when I took this job is the residents’ families being a problem – and actually it is kind of a big problem.”
That led Drasher to ask the Lebanon County Commissioners for permission to conduct an educational campaign with nursing home staff and residents this year. He noted he’s been meeting more with residents than staff and has, in many cases, conducted multiple meetings at the same facility to inform residents and staff at separate sessions.
“We wanted to head that (family interference) off, especially going into a presidential year and address some of that stuff,” he said. “I’ve been meeting more with residents, but I am personally more interested in meeting with staff because I want to protect you guys.”
Drasher said residents are more worried about ensuring they are registered to vote or that their mail-in ballot has been received at the county elections office rather than voting legalities.
He emphasized that in meeting with Cornwall Manor staff he was there to talk about procedures and is not permitted to offer legal advice. He told the half-dozen staff members in attendance that any legal questions they may have should be referred to Cornwall Manor’s legal counsel.
Drasher asked if Cornwall Manor residents are primarily permanent or temporary inhabitants. He posed that question because the law is specific about the official address for all registered voters.
“When people move here, it is no different than any other house in any other neighborhood as far as I am concerned,” said Drasher. “It’s very straightforward. If you have a different mailing address than the home address, that’s fine. The residents’ address has got to be where they lay their head at night.”
Drasher said that’s important because there are “hundreds of ballots for every election in Lebanon County” and the address determines which ballot a resident should receive.
“It’s very important that we know right where the resident lives,” added Drasher. “If they move just across or within the same building, you’re probably fine and I don’t need an update on that.”
Drasher said the county’s election office receiving incorrect addresses is a problem that extends beyond nursing homes. An issue arises when the address seems correct but isn’t, which means when a mail-in ballot is sent, it will be returned as undeliverable since the intended recipient doesn’t live there.
“If a resident registers and fills out an address and it is a valid address and looks correct, then we’re going to take it,” he said. “When we mail it and it bounces back to us, we do our best to try and track that person down. But if it is a ballot and it’s two weeks before the election and they’re requesting something, there’s only so much time to try and fix that.”
Drasher noted it’s important to “get that right,” adding it has been an ongoing problem for election officials.
A Cornwall Manor staff member told Drasher during the forum that she believes residents having the same mailing address may have been an issue in the past.
“That’s not unusual,” answered Drasher. “As long as residents are getting mail via the same PO box, I don’t think that. As long as we have the correct residential address and residents are getting their mail.”
Cornwall Manor communications director Stacia Layser said most mail is received at the same post office box number and then delivered to residents by staff. Residents of The Woods have street addresses and their mail is delivered to them separately, added Layser.
Drasher noted a Myerstown-based nursing facility uses the same mailing address, which isn’t an issue with that post office nor with the county’s elections bureau.
However, voting “activists” believe it is. He noted they see one address receiving “hundreds of ballots” and make claims of voter fraud.
“The post office and us work together on things like this just so we know what is the best thing to use,” added Drasher. He noted that this does not constitute fraud and wastes taxpayer dollars to defend when lawsuits are filed.
During his presentation, Drasher delivered a cache of various voter forms, including Pennsylvania Voter Registration, Pennsylvania Application for Mail-In Ballot, designated agent for mail-in ballot authorization and Voter Request to Cancel Registration.
He noted the voter registration application is used when people choose to change political parties, which happens quite often. No one’s affiliation is changed without that form, and he noted that all paper forms are kept in perpetuity.
“You do that because people forget they changed their political parties and they call you six months later, saying they never voted for that party in their life,” said Drasher. “By having that paper trail, you can show them that they changed it on that day.”
Read More: County Commissioners vote to approve inbound mail-in ballot tracking
Drasher said residents who need assistance with forms can sign or, at a minimum, mark the authorized designated agent form showing that they have given permission to receive assistance. This same form is used when someone returns a mail-in ballot on behalf of a voter.
Each mail-in ballot that receives assistance or is delivered to the county by another individual must contain an authorization form for every ballot that goes through either one of those processes.
The designated agent authorization form is for voters who have a disability as defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. This form permits the agent to submit a completed paper ballot application to the county’s board of elections, pick up a ballot for the disabled voter to complete, and deliver or mail the completed ballot to the elections office.
“The resident (or voter) has to try and make a mark,” said Drasher. “I know that sounds petty, but I need a pen dot, I need a mark, I need an X.”
There is a reason voters must do this.
“That gets into election law, which is nuts but it also includes one of the really cool parts of it though: The concept of the non-transferable (voting) right, the only American right that is non-transferable and that supersedes power of attorney.”
Quite simply, that means a resident’s family member or even a nursing home staff member can’t vote on their behalf.
“A family member can’t come here and vote for them,” said Drasher. “Social workers can help them (to) vote, but on the ballot envelope you have to sign and say I helped this person vote.”
Drasher said a resident has to tell the person assisting them who the candidate(s) are for whom they want to receive their vote(s), emphasizing again that it is illegal for someone to tell a voter how to vote.
“Activists want to be here and they are pushing for that,” said Drasher about monitoring nursing home residents casting their mail-in ballots. “If you don’t hear from them between now and November, I’ll be shocked. Activists say, ‘How do you know (they voted legally)?’ It’s the honor system.”
Drasher highly recommended staff assisting residents with their ballots to eliminate the possibility of family members voting for them, adding that two employees monitoring the process eliminates someone from posing a he-said, she-said scenario at a later time.
“Just be careful,” said Drasher. “The most common thing I hear is, ‘My mom always voted Democrat her whole life and that’s who she would vote for.’ It’s probably true, but the kid can’t come and do it for them. The mom has got to actually do it.”
One of the biggest assists nursing home staff can provide their residents is informing them now to request a mail-in ballot. (This same advice is applicable to all voters.)
Drasher said although the deadline is one week before the election to request a mail-in ballot, the mail system, especially east of Lebanon city, takes about seven days for mail to be delivered.
“They might get it before the election, but there is no way for them to mail it back to us,” said Drasher, who added all mail-in ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. “If your residents have already requested a mail-in ballot, it will get mailed to them the day they are available.”
Drasher said legal challenges to whose names appear on the ballot in this year’s election are expected. He estimated that those cases may not be settled until October, meaning ballots won’t be distributed until they are approved.
“You have at least now until through September to be in that first wave of mail that goes out,” he said, adding that once the first set of ballots are distributed there’s a three- or four-day waiting period for mail-in ballot requests to be processed. “If they change their mind because they don’t want to wait in line (to vote), that’s still okay, but until we receive their request, process it and until the next mail drop goes out, it takes a little while.”
Drasher informed staff that voters must request a mail-in ballot for each election – although a form asking if a voter wants to receive one is sent to those who have previously voted that way. That letter was mailed in February, he added.
“The reason we do that is because people die, they move and don’t tell us and we don’t want to be sending out ballots willy-nilly,” said Drasher. “There are no free-range ballots, and we account for every ballot that goes out.”
There are times when people get confused or forget if they’ve already requested a mail-in ballot. Drasher said the website vote.pa.gov has a database that voters can check to verify mail-in ballot and voter registration statuses.
“Anything that’s related to elections is on that website, so that is definitely the one you want to use,” he said.
Drasher said while his office meticulously tracks what is sent from his office to avoid duplication, what he can’t control are scammers, junk mail and third-party entities who are contacting voters, including those who mail non-county mail-in ballot applications.
He said there are scammers who are using tactics to obtain information fraudulently and there are others who send junk mail, even making those mailings look like they came from the county’s elections office.
“These political action committees buy data files, but often those files are out-of-date by a decade or more,” said Drasher. “They may be blasting it out to residents who no longer even live in that home. … It may say ballot on it, but it is legal if it contains all of the required information and has been signed.”
What happens, however, is that people who are legally registered return the form trying to re-establish their voter credentials as do people who have legally requested a mail-in ballot.
“The problem is that people think that we’re sending them multiple ballots, we only send one,” said Drasher, who emphasized again that his office will only send one requested ballot to a voter. “There are bar codes on the materials that we send that track everything for that person. So when someone says, ‘I have four ballots (from the county),’ that’s wrong, it doesn’t happen. That’s junk mail. Just be aware of that.”
If a registration is questioned by a third party or one arises about a voter’s information, Drasher again encourages visiting vote.pa.gov to obtain current status.
Layser said the home makes forms available to independent living residents and asks those in personal and skilled care if they require assistance. Furthermore, they provide transportation to those residents who want to vote at one of the two precincts that serve Cornwall Manor.
Drasher also highlighted the voter cancellation form, in which someone has the right to relinquish their right to vote.
“You can’t take the right (to vote) from someone, but they can relinquish that right,” he said. “We get difficult calls, mostly from spouses and less so the kids, where one is incapacitated, is unlikely to vote and most likely will never vote again. The spouse’s concern is that someone will try to vote for them and that is valid.”
Drasher said nursing home staff should take any concerns about residents who may not have the capacity to vote to their legal counsel, adding he is required to distribute the form and not legal advice.
This meeting was held 90 days from the Presidential Election, and Drasher said his office has received 8,700 mail-in ballot requests. He anticipates “easily” distributing 12,000 prior to the election, which is on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Voter registration for this election closes on Oct. 21 and the last day to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 29, according to Drasher.
All mail-in ballots must be received at the county elections office by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.
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