On Oct. 7, the Westmoreland County commissioners finally approved ballot curing for the upcoming elections (“Westmoreland County approves ballot curing process for November election,” Oct. 7, TribLive). However, this was not a voluntary vote on the part of Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew, but was due to an order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, as Westmoreland was the only one of the 67 counties in the state that refused to allow this simple procedure. Chew especially was outraged that this measure was put in place and says people should “take responsibility” for reading the instructions. There have also been numerous letters to the editor blasting this practice.
“Curing” means correcting the signature or date on the outer envelope of the ballot submitted. This actually mirrors polling procedures when the voter, registered as ‘Thomas Smith,” presents himself as “Tom Smith.” The poll worker requests they sign the poll book using the name they registered to vote with. Similarly, if the voter makes a mistake on the ballot at the polls, they have three chances to correct it prior to submitting the ballot into the machine.
Mail-in voters will now have the same chance to make corrections. People make mistakes or have challenges, like dyslexia. Don’t be so quick to judge!
Elizabeth Veronica Weaver
Hempfield