The Allegheny County Elections Division is addressing what it called minor problems with mail-in ballots in response to concerns raised by the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

In a letter sent to the county last week, the ACLU said some mail-in ballots were sent out without declaration envelopes. Those are the outer envelopes that voters sign and date to properly vote by mail. The ACLU also claimed that an additional hundreds of mail-in ballots were returned to the county, marked as undeliverable.

“With so much at stake this election year, we hope that Allegheny County election officials will explain how they are taking swift action to remedy these issues so that no voter is left disenfranchised on Nov. 8,” ACLU Deputy Legal Director Sara Rose said in a statement.

David Voye, manager of the county’s Elections Division, said the county is aware of the issue with some declaration envelopes and knows of only six voters who contacted the county because their envelope was printed on one side, instead of two.

He said problems with declaration envelopes are not widespread, and the county regularly receives requests for new declaration envelopes because people might damage them from spills or they are filled out incorrectly.

“To date, we’ve sent out nearly 180,000 ballots with over 100,000 of those returned to date so this issue is extremely minimal,” Voye said.

Voye also acknowledged that some returned mail-in ballots have been marked as undeliverable. He said undeliverable ballots occur every election — even when absentee ballots were the only mail-in option, before no-excuse mail-in voting was instituted in 2020.

Voye said problems also can arise because mail-in ballots cannot be forwarded by the post office, so if voters move or are temporarily away, they are returned to the county. He encouraged voters who have not received their requested mail-in ballots to contact the Allegheny County Elections Division as soon as possible.

“This is why we stress on an ongoing basis that voters should check their voter registration and ensure everything is correct on their record,” Voye said.

The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is 5 p.m. Nov. 1. Completed mail-in ballots must be received by counties by 8 p.m. Nov. 8.

Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman has urged voters to turn in their mail-in ballots as soon as possible. Those using the U.S. Postal Service should try to mail their ballots at least a week before Nov. 8 election.

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