Soon after Chester County’s 230 precincts opened at 7 a.m. for the Nov. 4 municipal election, poll workers discovered that poll books countywide did not include third-party voter information. The cause of the incident is currently unknown, though the county is conducting an ongoing investigation.
According to a Nov. 10 news flash on the Chester County website, the event affected 75,076 out of 385,856 registered voters. Judges of Elections at each polling place directed third-party voters — including voters registered as independent, libertarian, “no affiliation” or “non-partisan” — to cast their vote using provisional ballots. Third-party voters used provisional ballots until supplemental poll books arrived to precincts. The county then announced judicial approval to extend voting hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Elizabeth Luminais is the Judge of Elections at polling place 618, which is located at TEMS. She oversaw the polling place’s voting process and guided third-party voters.
“It took longer to fill out this ballot than a lot of ballots. Then with the provisional ballots, they had to fold it and put it in a secrecy envelope, seal the secrecy envelope, put that secrecy envelope inside another envelope, seal that and bring it back to me,” Luminais said. “I would say it took between five and 15 minutes, depending on how compulsive people were about rereading instructions.”
The Nov. 10 news flash stated that voters cast more than 12,100 provisional ballots on Election Day, which is greater than the amount of provisional ballots cast in recent presidential election years. The county finished tabulating provisional ballots which met legal requirements by the end of the day on Nov. 13, before accepting 1,400 more that it had put aside on Nov. 17.
“The Voter Services person said, ‘All hands on deck on provisional ballots. Right now, 24/7, we’re processing provisional ballots. Then we will do the investigation because the most important thing is to complete the election,’” Luminais said.
On Nov. 17, Chester County announced on its website the timeline of the investigation and that the West Chester-based law firm Fleck Eckert Klein McGarry, LLC (FEKM) will investigate the incident. FEKM gave updates on the investigation during the Nov. 21 Chester County Board of Elections meeting and will present the concluding report, which explains why the mishap occurred and recommendations for future election procedures, to the public in a December 2025 or January 2026 Board of Elections meeting.
Senior and third-party voter Caleb Chong cast his ballot at the Easttown Library polling place. Chong feels that the additional steps for casting a provisional ballot could have been a challenge for third-party voters.
“I don’t think (the impact) is that big. I think it definitely did have an impact, though. I can definitely see someone messing up the (provisional ballot) and their vote not counting, or someone just leaving entirely because of it,” Chong said. “No matter how small that impact was, it definitely did matter.”
Tvisha Jani can be reached at [email protected].
