Pennsylvania Senator Ryan Aument Calls For Pause in No-Excuse Mail-In Voting

Pennsylvania State Senator Ryan Aument recently announced his intention to introduce legislation that would suspend the use of no-excuse mail-in ballots until at least 2023. Aument, who represents the 36th Pennsylvania Senatorial District in the Lancaster area, announced his intentions in a memorandum last Friday. “Parties on both sides of the aisle have acknowledged issues stemming from the current statute that necessitate a change in the law,” the statement read. “We must address these inadequacies if we are to restore confidence in the election system and the results they produce.”

Aument referenced recent Lancaster area election chaos in the memorandum. He referred to an instance in Mount Joy in which dozens of voters received mail-in ballots containing incorrect information. Affected voters found that their return envelopes contained the wrong addresses. “If you’re not looking for it you can easily oversee it,” a Mount Joy resident told WHTM.

In addition to that, around 2,700 Lancaster residents received wrong instructions in regards to their mail-in ballots. Affected voters received instructions on how to fill out a ballot in Delaware County. The problem was that Delaware County pays for postage with their ballots while Lancaster County does not. Lancaster Board of Elections Chairman Ray D’Agostino blamed a vendor and vowed that all ballots would be counted.

Aument also referenced a printing error in which about 14,000 ballots were affected. Pages had been printed in the wrong order. Since the voting machines are set up to scan pages in a particular order, this meant that the ballots could not be run through the machines and had to be counted by hand.

Senator Aument’s proposed legislation comes as calls for a full forensic audit of the 2020 Pennsylvania election heat up. Congressional candidate Teddy Daniels has been very vocal in calling for an audit, while state Senator Bob Mensch has done so as well.

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