Many registered voters in Bucks County who cast absentee or mail-in ballots last year will be getting renewal letters and mail-in ballot applications starting this week.
Bucks County officials said approximately 133,000 Bucks Countians who applied for a permanent spot on the county’s vote-by-mail list will start getting the letter in advance of the 2021 primary election.
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For some, the letter has already arrived in mailboxes, according to LevittownNow.com readers.
From the county:
The mass mailing was made necessary by a provision in Pennsylvania’s new voting laws that requires so-called “permanent” mail-in voters to re-up every year.
Failure to return the form means the recipient will not receive a mail-in ballot for the 2021 municipal primary and general election. Returning the form, or completing it online, means the voter will receive mail-in ballots for both 2021 elections.
Under Act 77 of 2019, and Act 12 of 2020, even those voters who want to permanently receive mail-in ballots will only receive ballots for the year in which they submit their renewal form.
Bucks County Board of Elections Chairperson Bob Harvie, also a Bucks County Commissioner, said he believes the law should be updated because under it’s current form, “permanent doesn’t necessarily mean permanent.”
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“It’s a good law, but there needs to be some changes, and that’s certainly one of them,” Harvie added.
The county said in a statement that the annual renewal process mandated by state law will cost the county at least $31,095 in printing and postage. The state is not providing funding to cover the costs.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
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“Our staff then has to go through all those applications just like they did last year, which took up tremendous amounts of time and a huge amount of effort on the part of the staff,” Harvie said.
The head of the board of elections also worried that the new mailings will confuse some voters.
“We’ve already reached out to both of the political parties here in Bucks to make them aware so that when they start getting questions at their headquarters about why people are getting these in the mail they understand it’s a state requirement, something we have to do, and no one’s trying to disenfranchise them,” Harvie said.
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The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania has put together a video to explain the mailings. The video can be viewed online.
Due to the pandemic, Bucks County had approximately 304,000 voters cast ballots via mail last November.
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County officials and the Bucks County Democratic and Republican committees both said the process was handled well and there were no major problems.
No excuse mail-in voting was approved in 2019 with support from Democratic and Republican state lawmakers in Harrisburg.
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