Chester County accepts most provisional ballots cast after Election Day pollbook error
After a printing error forced an unprecedented number of voters in Chester County’s Nov. 4 municipal election to cast provisional ballots, the county Board of Elections ultimately accepted the vast majority of those ballots.
The county had left unaffiliated and third-party voters out of the printed pollbooks that are used to check voters in at voting locations. For hours on Election Day, these voters either had to wait for supplemental pollbooks to be delivered or use a provisional ballot — a last-resort voting option used when there is some question about the voter’s eligibility.
In total, the county received about 12,600 provisional ballots — or roughly 6.4% of the total ballots cast in the county — more than in any other election in recent history. Roughly 11,200 of those ballots were counted without issue after the county confirmed the voters’ eligibility.
However, during the review process last week, the Republican Committee of Chester County challenged more than 1,100 provisional ballots on various deficiencies, including missing signatures from voters or poll workers, or missing secrecy envelopes, which are required for Pennsylvania’s mail and provisional ballots. Roughly 300 other provisional ballots were rejected for other reasons, such as the voter not being registered in Chester County to vote.
https://www.votebeat.org/pennsylvania/2025/11/18/chester-county-selects-firm-pollbook-provisional-ballot-problem-2025-election/