Fewer mail ballots were rejected for voter errors overall in this year’s primary election, a Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis shows, an achievement that the state credits to a modified ballot return envelope designed to help voters avoid mistakes. But state data points to a new type of voter mistake affecting ballot rejections. And the way counties have diverged in their response to this error has opened up a new avenue for litigation ahead of November's presidential contest.

Compared with the 2023 primary, counties rejected 9.6% fewer ballots for the kinds of errors that the redesign sought to address: a missing date or signature on the return envelope, an incorrect date, or ballots returned without an inner secrecy envelope. ... (snip)

Redesign made date and signature box stand out

The Department of State’s redesign of the mail ballot return envelope sought to address four of the most common errors that require counties to reject ballots: a missing date, an incorrect date, a missing signature, or a ballot not returned in a secrecy envelope. In the new design, the area where a voter is to sign and date the envelope is shaded, to make it stand out, and it has the digits “20” prefilled for the year, to prevent voters from writing their birth date. Secrecy envelopes were also changed to yellow and included new watermarks to make them stand out.

Overall, the rate of ballots rejected for these reasons, as a proportion of all mail ballots returned, went down, which officials claim as success for the new design. But when the categories are broken apart, the success of the effort is less clear. The rejection rate for ballots lacking a date or being returned without a secrecy envelope went down. But the rates for those returned with an incorrect date or no signature went up, and those errors now represent a greater proportion of rejected ballots.