Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt met Wednesday with the staff and director of the Washington County Department of Elections to hear “firsthand about the challenges they face when running elections.” Schmidt is planning to visit the election offices of all sixty-seven Pennsylvania counties. He also planned to visit the Greene County Elections Office as well. During his visit, Schmidt stopped in the WJPA Newsroom to talk about some current election issues such as ballot curing and the redesign of mail-in ballots. The Washington County Board of Elections was recently taken to court over its decision to not allow ballot-curing in the county in the recent primary election, and last week, Judge Brandon Neuman ordered the board of elections to notify people with deficiencies on their ballot to contact them about such errors. During the primary, 259 voters had their ballots cast aside due to minor clerical issues such as lack of signature or dates. Neuman also ruled the voters will be able to cast a provisional ballot in the event of such errors. Washington County Commission Chairman Nick Sherman, also a member of the elections board, had insisted they were following the letter of the law in not allowing errors on mail-in ballots to be fixed, however, Schmidt says there is no law that specifically states ballot-curing is not allowed. He says the decision is really up to the discretion of each county. Schmidt says many counties throughout the commonwealth allow minor mistakes to be corrected and they are not breaking any laws. Schmidt also addressed the revamp of ballots. He says the state did some research to see where the most mistakes were being made and then redesigned them in hopes of ensuring the process is more easily understood. Schmidt says his trips to county elections departments are not only to learn of the local challenges faced but to hear what the directors and staff feel the state department can do to solve those challenges and to help the process go smoothly and fairly. (Photo courtesy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania)