Election officials: mail ballots, citizenship key in midterms

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(The Center Square) - With 34 days until the midterm elections, administrators from across the country said mail ballot processes and citizenship verification remain key issues.

The Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions hosted a roundtable in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday ahead of the consequential midterm elections. Election administrators highlighted voter hesitancy in mail-in ballots, congressional redistricting and citizenship verification as key issues ahead of Nov. 3.

The Trump administration and members of Congress sought to place more restrictions on mail-in ballots over the past year ahead of the midterm elections, including citizenship verification and strict return deadlines.

Jessica Garofolo, director of administrative services in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, said her jurisdiction has seen a drop off in mail-in ballot requests. She estimated a 5% to 6% recorded decrease in mail-in ballot requests.

However, she said the apparent uncertainty over mail-in ballots could have been driven by the U.S. Supreme Court’s outcome in Watson v. RNC. In June, the high court allowed states to continue accepting late mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia accept late-arriving mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day. 

Garofolo said Allegheny County saw a spike of 10,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots following the high court’s allowance of late returns. She estimated the county has about 126,000 active mail-in ballot requests.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County Clerk, said he expects the biggest differences to be in how voters return mail-in ballots. In Los Angeles County, election administrators send mail-in ballots to all registered voters. He said updates in the U.S. Postal Service’s postmarking policy will likely motivate changes in voter behavior.

“Using alternatives to return the ballot other than going through the U.S. Postal Service, I think is on the rise,” Logan said. “The drop boxes will become critically important. And I do think that we will see a higher rate of in-person voting in the election.”

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to move forward with using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program to verify citizenship of registered voters. States may choose to use the system but it is not a requirement across the country.

“The SAVE system has the ability to confirm someone is a citizen but does not really have the ability to confirm someone isn’t,” said Aaron Blacksberg, federal policy counsel at the Institute for Responsive Government. “A non-confirmation is not a confirmation of non-citizenship.”

Wendy Sartory Link, Palm Beach County, Florida, Supervisor of Elections, said the SAVE program is an important tool but it needs to be scrutinized. She said Palm Beach County continues to receive names from the state government to verify on a daily basis.

“Oftentimes the information from that database is outdated and [registered voters] do in fact have a naturalization certificate, they do have a United States passport,” Link said. “We have to be very careful about how it is used.”

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, for the third time, that Missouri cannot use a congressional map that would likely favor Republicans. Eric Fey, Director of Elections in St. Louis County, Missouri, said he appreciated the high court’s continued persistence in clarifying what maps could be used for Election Day.

“When it becomes problematic is when we don’t know what ballot or what set of congressional districts to use once voting begins,” Fey said.

Fey said ballots were already sent to 15,000 voters in St. Louis County, Missouri, using the 2022 congressional map. He pointed to the ongoing collections as an important step that cannot be interrupted.

“We just want to know what the rules of the road are before the election actually starts,” Fey said.

Missouri voters will be faced with two ballot referendums regarding the congressional maps in November. One referendum will be on whether to adopt the 2025 congressional map that gives Republicans a one-seat advantage, while the other will prevent the Missouri General Assembly from vetoing the outcome of the referendum.

The ballot referendum reads: “Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled ‘House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),’ which repeals Missouri’s existing congressional plan, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more counties intact?"

A “yes” vote on the measure would replace the congressional map with one favoring Republicans. A “no” vote would prevent the GOP-favored map from going into effect and maintains the 2022 congressional district boundaries.

Fey told The Center Square he anticipates funding from both sides of the argument to educate voters on the two referendums. He said wording of the two referendum questions has not been challenged in court proceedings.

Fey said the outcome of the vote will be “interesting.”

All of the election administrators urged eligible voters to make a voting plan, check registration and bring concerns to questions to local officials ahead of the Nov. 3 elections.