By Josh Kelety, Associated Press
Pennsylvania law generally requires voters to return their own ballot and prohibits people from returning other voters’ ballots to a drop box or county elections office on their behalf. But there are some exceptions.
If a Pennsylvania voter has a disability and needs assistance returning their ballot, they can designate someone to drop it off for them. The voter must use a “Designated Agent Form” and send it with the person handling it.
The form “must be completed by both the voter and the designee, and the designated agent must have the form with them when they pick up or return the voter’s ballot or other voting materials,” Geoff Morrow, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, wrote in an email.
The law applies whether voters are returning a ballot to the post office, a drop box, or to a county election office, said Thad Hall, director of elections and voter registration in Mercer County.
In all, more than half of states have laws that explicitly allow a third party to return a completed ballot, according to a tally from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Many restrict this to a caregiver, family member or household member. A few states require designated agents to sign a document confirming they have the authority to deliver someone’s ballot.
Enforcing Pennsylvania’s law is another matter.
County elections officials can check for designated agent forms at county election offices. And some Pennsylvania counties use technology to monitor their drop boxes for security purposes, according to Morrow, the Pennsylvania Department of State spokesperson.
But enforcing the law for people who return ballots by mail is difficult, said Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania’s former secretary of state and current president of Athena Strategies, an elections-focused consulting firm.
“In terms of its enforcement, there’s really, you know, very little ability to enforce something like somebody putting a ballot in the mail,” Boockvar said. “People have been mailing letters for each other forever.”
The Pennsylvania Department of State “encourages anyone with evidence of potential criminal activity regarding mail ballot returns to contact their county law enforcement agency or district attorney,” Morrow wrote in an email.
Forrest Lehman, Lycoming County’s director of elections and registration, said his office does have to turn away people who misunderstand the rules and try to return their spouse’s ballot.
In one high-profile incident, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said in November 2021 that his wife dropped off his mail-in ballot. Wolf’s spokeswoman at the time called it an honest mistake.
The York County District Attorney’s Office received multiple complaints following Wolf’s comments, but no charges were filed. The chief county detective who investigated the matter found “no irregularities concerning the ballot and no eyewitnesses or video surveillance evidence,” Kyle King, chief administrator at the office, wrote in an email. The first assistant district attorney and the district attorney also reviewed the case and concluded the evidence was insufficient to support charges, King added.
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This story is part of an explanatory series focused on Pennsylvania elections produced collaboratively by WITF in Harrisburg and The Associated Press.
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The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here.
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