An Erie judge ordered Friday that the county board of elections remains open through the weekend. after 17,000 mail-in ballots may not have been delivered to voters who requested them and hundreds more received a ballot intended for someone else – a major problem caused by the seller of mail-in ballots and likely to cause delays in counting votes in part of the northwest Pennsylvania.

The United States Postal Service, the Erie County Board of Elections and its absentee ballot vendor, ElectionIQ, “are unable to accurately determine the delivery status” of more than a third of all absentee ballots requested in the county, according to the order of Judge David Ridge of the Erie County Court of Common Pleas. An additional 1,200 residents who had requested absentee ballots for out-of-state residences, such as universities, did not receive their absentee ballots, the order states.

Erie’s mail-in voting problems persisted for weeksafter the county announced that about 300 voters received ballots intended for other people in addition to their own due to errors made by Ohio-based ElectionIQ.

The judge’s order now paints a far more dire picture, just four days before Election Day, according to officials’ estimates during hearings Thursday and Friday. that more than 375 mail-in voters received a ballot intended for someone else in addition to their own, and that between 13,000 and 17,000 mail-in ballots are missing.

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Thomas Talarico, the attorney representing the Erie County Board of Elections in the case, said the estimate of 17,000 ballots was “exaggerated and extreme” and was calculated based on the number of voters who had not yet returned their absentee ballots, and that not all of them might be. missing. Of the 42,152 Erie County voters who have requested an absentee ballot, 16,330 are still waiting, according to Department of State data.

“We are all convinced that despite the delays in postal voting, everyone will ultimately have the opportunity to vote,” Talarico added.

Erie was one of three counties to switch from voting for Barack Obama in 2012 to voting for former President Donald Trump in 2016. It was also one of two, along with Northampton, to switch back to Biden in 2020 – but by only about 1,400 votes.

Ridge ordered the election board to remain open throughout the weekend for extended hours and add an additional printer to its offices at the Erie County Courthouse to reduce wait times — which had been previously between two and three hours – so that the voters concerned obtain a new ballot paper. , and collect enough ballots and provisional ballots for affected voters to use on Election Day.

He also ordered the county to release the names of out-of-state voters and use an overnight delivery service to ship them replacement absentee ballots. The county is already in the process of emailing all 1,200 out-of-state voters to offer to send them a new ballot, Talarico said.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party sued the Erie County Board of Elections on Tuesday.alleging that 10,000 to 20,000 voters who requested absentee ballots did not receive them and needed an injunction to force the county to take additional steps so all voters could vote. The Republican Party of Pennsylvania has since been allowed to join the suit, according to Friday’s order.

While the Republicans and Trump have already filed several legal challenges across the state to determine which mail-in ballots are counted The Election Day filing in Erie marked the first legal action filed by the state Democratic Party over mail-in ballots before Tuesday’s election.

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Erie voters who received a duplicate ballot and those who did not receive their ballot should be contacted by the Board of Elections and given the opportunity to cancel their previous ballot, and all ballots affected ballots should be separated for further review after election day. ordered the judge. County workers are going to the homes of some of these voters to offer them these options, Talarico said.

Mail-in voting problems will likely cause delays in Erie County’s vote counting in what is expected to be a presidential race decided by just thousands of ballots in Pennsylvania.

“It will definitely be affected, but we’re prepared for it,” Talarico said, adding that the county has hired additional sheriff’s deputies and set up additional housing for party observers.

The county has not yet paid ElectionIQ for its absentee voting services and will likely take legal action against the vendor for the alleged errors, Talarico said. The county claimed the vendor made multiple printing errors that resulted in incorrectly coding ballots, often did not respond to the county’s questions, and more.

All voters who did not do so receive their postal ballot are eligible for vote provisionally on election day.