Split vote shows divided board.
Montgomery County officials were split on a decision to count nearly 500 mail-in ballots from the primary election that were segregated due to issues with the year.
The Montgomery County Board of Elections convened late Friday morning with the sole agenda item regarding the “consideration of mail-in ballots with incorrect years.” Senior Assistant Solicitor John Marlatt gave a status report concerning the roughly 60,000 mail-in and absentee ballots returned as part of last month’s primary election.
Voters began receiving ballots on April 1 and had to have them returned by 8 p.m. on April 23. Election officials separated 474 ballots where the month and day were recorded correctly, Marlatt said, “but the year was either missing or incorrect.” Of those, 346 ballots came from Democrats and 137 from Republicans, with the average voting age of 72 years old, Marlatt said.
Marlatt noted in his address to county officials this issue has been highly litigated and the matter of dates has been “challenged twice at the federal level.”
The same issue came before the county election board earlier this year when North Penn School District held a special election. The board ultimately voted 2-1 to allow 75 mail-in ballots, which were shown to have the outer envelope containing an acceptable day and month, “but the voter listed an incorrect year, or did not list a year,” Marlatt said during the Jan. 23 election board meeting.
Montgomery County Election Board Chairman Neil Makhija and Vice Chairwoman Jamila Winder, both Democrats, voted in favor, while Republican Commissioner Tom DiBello was the sole opponent. Friday’s meeting produced a similar result, passing another 2-1 vote in favor of including those 474 mail-in and absentee ballots in the count.
DiBello and Makhija voiced opposing opinions on the issue.
“My opinion hasn’t changed from when we had this conversation earlier on this year with the special election,” DiBello said. “What I’ve heard today and all I keep hearing is about opinions, opinions, opinions.
“Act 77 says that mail-in ballots need to be properly dated and there’s been no change to the law. So as far as I’m concerned opinions don’t mean anything,” he continued. “So I don’t support this. I didn’t support it then, I don’t support it now and I won’t support it moving forward.”
“My fundamental view on this is if we know the voters are eligible, we know they’re properly registered, that we shouldn’t allow something that is immaterial to disqualify or discount their votes, and I could not go to any one of these voters and tell them we’re going to throw out your ballot…” Makhija said.
“I can,” DiBello interjected.
“Over something that is …,” Makhija continued, “well you can vote the way you’d like to vote. So … you made your comment, I’ll make my comment.
“I think it’s really important that this board protect(s) the right to vote for all Montgomery County residents and this is an important measure that would do that,” Makhija continued.
“Obviously in Montgomery County we interpret Act 77 however we want,” DiBello said following the vote.
Voter numbers
Montgomery County had 608,481 registered voters, according to the county’s 2024 unofficial primary election results dashboard. With 148,738 ballots cast, the 2024 primary election had a 24.44 voter turnout rate.
Marlatt noted approximately 1,300 mail-in and absentee ballots were “flagged with issues” during the canvassing process. More than 700 ballots were “rejected” due to concerns over invalid or undated ballots, unsigned declarations or identifications.
Specifically, there were 166 ballots “where voters (were) required to verify ID and failed to do so,” Marlatt said. There were another 164 undated declaration ballots, 155 ballots with invalid dates, 136 ballots with unsigned declarations, 84 naked ballots, and nine “rejected for correspondence ID that was not found.”
Marlatt added that there were 282 ballots “returned as undeliverable,” and 859 ballots “came in after the deadline.”
In addition, 674 provisional ballots were compiled but have not yet been counted.
Ballot concerns
The subject of mail-in ballots on Friday picked up from the previous election board meetings and public comment forums of county commissioner meetings when elected officials and area residents spoke for and against the remote voting opportunities permitted in Pennsylvania.
“This last election was not good performance wise by the county when it came to mail-in ballots,” said Worcester Township resident Jim Mollick on Thursday.
“(I) appreciate you raising the issues from the primary election and … the three of us take delivering on our elections very seriously and we want to ensure, especially during a presidential year, that we unpack every part of the process, and take the feedback that we’re getting from the community very seriously in terms of how we can improve things,” Winder said at the commissioners’ meeting.
Winder made a “commitment” that the election board plans to conduct an “after action” report to improve procedures for the general election in November. DiBello called for more structure when it comes to election-related planning.
“The primary election we had significant issues with the entire mail-in process, and I think it’s prudent as this election board moving forward that going into the general election in November that we have regularly scheduled meetings at least monthly,” he said on Friday, adding that it’s crucial to “have a lot of oversight and understand exactly step by step what’s occurring and when it’s occurring and even a layout of the schedule what happens before during and after the election.”
Winder and Makhija stressed the importance of meeting with staff, vendors and state partners to get on the same page.
“We’re systematically reviewing every step of the mail-in process on how we can make it more efficient,” Makhija said on Thursday, noting there were difficulties statewide as “none of the counties were able to meet the 50-day deadline” of sending out mail-in ballots due to the fact the “courts did not confirm who’s on the ballot” within a timely fashion.
“As for what we can do at the county, we’re going to work with all of our vendors to make sure that they have the proper capacity and can efficiently process the hundreds of thousands of ballots they’re going to need to for us,” Makhija said.
Winder agreed.
“That’s critical,” she said. “We know what the state needs to do, but it’s like what can we do with what we know we can control? I know we’re collectively committed to that.”
All results are considered unofficial until certified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections. Officials have until May 13 to do so.
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