Last Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court told county Boards of Elections to reject mail ballots missing dates on their return envelopes as well as those where a voter put the wrong date on their ballot. Then on Saturday, the court ordered more corrective restrictions.
The court’s separate time frame for absentee ballots appears to come from conflating those votes with a different kind of absentee ballot — the ones sent to military and overseas voters, known as UOCAVA for the federal law that governs them — which are sent out 70 days before Election Day, which is Aug. 30 this year.
As a result of that ruling, Philadelphia City Commissioners (on behalf of the Board of Elections) has given its voters the opportunity to cure ballots. On Saturday, November 5th, they posted:
It is strongly advised that the voters on these lists request a replacement ballot at the County Board of Elections office in City Hall Room 140 on Saturday or Sunday from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm; Monday, November 7th from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm; or on Election Day from 7:30 am – 7:30 pm to avoid the potential rejection of their ballot. Voters unable to travel to the Board’s office due to a disability may authorize a designated agent pick up a replacement ballot and/or return a completed ballot using the Designated Agent Form.
And that’s when Hope Springs from Field PAC got to work. They released the names of 3,596 Philadelphia voters whose VBM ballot was problematic, which is more than all the ballots in the state of Georgia that need curing before November 11th. Think about that for a second. The number of ballots in the confines of Philadelphia exceeds all the problematic ballots in the state of Georgia. The RNC (which initiated the lawsuit to have these ballots not counted) understands that the GOP needs to narrow the electorate if Republicans are to have a chance of winning on Tuesday.
But that’s where Hope Springs from Field PAC comes in. By Saturday afternoon, we had already matched the 3,596 names from the four lists the Philadelphia City Commissioners released to their addresses in VAN (the Democratic database) and had cut 34 pieces of turf for volunteers to start knocking on doors. On Sunday, 15 people, most of them members of Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternities, gave up their Sunday afternoon to start contacting these voters. More will follow today and tomorrow. We also placed 2,741 Robocalls to the numbers associated with those voters in VAN on Saturday night. Volunteers also started texting those numbers on Sunday, although the number of actual cell phone numbers on the list was in the hundreds. We also sent out a couple dozen emails alert voters of issues with their ballot.
This wasn’t part of the plan. Pennsylvania doesn’t have Ballot Curing procedures. In other states, Ballots are rejected largely because of a perceived signature mismatch. That is not the issue here. The 3,596 voters had other issues that exposed their ballots to not being counted because of the RNC lawsuit. 1,986 Philadelphia voters failed to include a date on their returned ballot. 1,092 did not include the security envelope that came with their ballot (which was to be inserted inside of it). 363 had a “Potentially Incorrect Date” (outside the window the new court ruling designated). And 155 of these problematic ballots had no signature.
On Sunday, Hope Springs volunteers found 187 voters on the list. About half of them acknowledged having received a call or text and knew we were coming. 4 of them were taken to the County Board of Elections office yesterday. We have rides lined up for dozens more today. Clearly, this is a tight deadline, but at least these heroic volunteers were willing to step up!
This was exactly the kind of Campaign Field work for which Hope Springs from Field was envisioned. Work that wasn't getting done, for whatever reason, work that counteracted Republican efforts to narrow the electorate, work that would have otherwise forced Democratic campaigns to deviate from their own Field plans (with their own tight deadlines). But we also believe that, if Republicans realize that for every action they take to suppress the vote, Democrats will counteract and defend Democracy, maybe (just maybe) they will cut the crap. Even if Republicans never realize that their activity will lead to increased Democratic field activity, this is something we have to do in response to GOP voter suppression efforts.
We don’t even know if the Board of Elections notified voters who have problematic issues with their mail in ballots. Even still, if they had, they would have waited for voters to follow through. Especially in this tight window of opportunity, we cannot wait. Campaigns normally engage is something more akin to nagging, but — in this case, Hope Springs from Field is acting in a sense of urgency. Elections Administrators may notify through one-off phones calls or a single letter. But we will use every tactic to make sure that voters are aware that their signatures need to be “cured:” emails, robocalls, live calls, texts and knocking on doors. Repeated efforts to connect, notify and resolve. Repeated contact until the deadlines pass.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First Round of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ballotcures
Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that repeated voter interactions are critical. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
In the 2021 Senate Runoff in Georgia, Hope Springs volunteers cured over 200 ballots. It was in that effort that we learned about the need for mobile printers. But it was through the process of helping (mostly minority) Georgians get free photo Voter IDs that we realized that there were conservative orgs and Republican volunteers determined to challenge as many voters as possible on the most picayune issues, seeking to force voters to document those issues before their votes could be accepted and counted.
Curing ballots is perhaps an underappreciated process for campaigns and volunteers. In essence, it is only a factor when races are unbelievably close. But that may very well be the case in 2022 in these six states. Not only are we out there knocking on doors to Cure Ballots in Philadelphia (now), but have been doing so for at least a week in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Florida — and in most states, longer.
As you can see, Democratic campaigns in these states can no longer functionally end on election day, but must anticipate continuation at least until the period for ballot curing is over. Activists must start to take that into account, as well. The election won’t be over until (Democratic) ballots are cured!
Allegheny County has now done the same, publishing its list of voters with problematic ballots and volunteers with Hope Springs from Field are currently working to match those names in VAN!
Voters may come to the Elections Division office, 326 County Office Building (3rd floor), 542 Forbes Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh and present photo ID and will be provided the opportunity to cure. This opportunity is available during regular business hours of 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM on Monday, November 7, 2022 and from 7 AM to 8 PM on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
If you are able to support our efforts to mobilize these difficult, brand new voters to cast their ballots in November, especially in minority communities, expanding the electorate, or just believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ballotcures
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!
UPDATE (11/8):
On Monday, in Philadelphia, Hope Springs volunteers talked to an additional 264 voters on the list. Most of them acknowledged having received a call or text and knew we were coming. 17 of them were taken to the County Board of Elections office yesterday and we had pre-arranged rides for another 34.
We also placed another 6,430 Robocalls on Monday to the numbers associated with those voters in VAN on Saturday night. We also sent out a to more rounds of emails that alerted voters of issues with their ballot to the 394 voters for whom we had email addresses.
In Allegheny, volunteers matched the names of the 1003 voters the county have divided among their two lists. We placed two rounds of Robocalls to the 815 phone numbers we could match. Given the urgency, we gave 83 voters rides to the county building yesterday. 17 volunteers spent Monday doing the (typically Election Day) circuit knocking on these doors repeatedly throughout the day, letting them know about the issue, offering rides to the Elections Division and encouraging them to take the extra steps forced upon them by the Supreme Court. (These are the numbers I had last night; they will likely be revised when all the data is in.)