When Pennsylvania gave all eligible voters the choice to vote by mail starting in 2019, it was a huge victory for democracy.

Single parents, people who work multiple jobs, individuals with disabilities and mobility issues suddenly had a greater opportunity to participate in our democratic process by voting at their convenience.

But as tens of thousands of Pennsylvania voters turned to mail ballots, the new option to vote brought new challenges. It quickly became clear that minor clerical errors prevented otherwise eligible ballots from being counted.

As humans do, some voters forgot to sign and/or date their envelopes. Others mistakenly added their date of birth to the outer envelope or forgot to enclose their ballot in a secrecy envelope. What was meant to broaden access unexpectedly led to new forms of disenfranchisement.

Mail voting at such a large scale was novel to our commonwealth when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted its use to surge in 2020. And the new law offered limited instructions. It was up to county election officials and boards of elections to create policies around handling mail ballots with minor errors.

Some counties saw the gaps and immediately acted, developing systems to notify voters and allow them to “cure” their ballot errors. Other counties ignored them and, instead of being pro-voter, did little or nothing to alert voters of mistakes or help them preserve their vote through opportunities to fix mail ballot mistakes.

The good news is, as we look ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, we have both clear data and new legal clarity about how to protect voters. Two recent state Supreme Court decisions, which the ACLU of Pennsylvania helped litigate, have set a clear floor for notice policies.

Counties must, at minimum, notify voters of a flawed mail ballot by uploading that information into a statewide database, called the SURE system, and must count any provisional ballot that a voter casts as a result of having their mail ballot tossed due to minor errors.

While these decisions were big wins for Pennsylvania voters, the real impact of what is generally called “notice and cure” programs rests with county boards of elections and how they implement these requirements.

Counties have an obligation to make sure every eligible voter has a chance to cast their ballot and ensure that their ballot is counted. In this relatively new era of mail voting, Pennsylvania counties could be looking to adopt policies that minimize disenfranchisement and maximize voter participation.

Fortunately, our new report, A Noticeable Difference (co-authored with Common Cause Pennsylvania), provides clear answers. The most effective notice and cure policy is automatic return of flawed ballots with instructions for voters to fix and resubmit. In Allegheny and Dauphin Counties, around 70% of flawed ballots were cured in the 2024 General Election.

In counties that contact voters through other means, such as phone calls or by publishing lists online, the cure rate was closer to 40-50%.

Finally, in counties that take no further action to alert voters of flawed mail ballots besides uploading the information into the SURE system, which tracks ballot submissions, the cure rate was around 20%.

The bottom line? The method by which counties choose to offer notice and the opportunity to cure flawed mail ballots can make all the difference in whether thousands of voters have their votes counted or are disenfranchised.

As we enter our nation’s 250th year, our elections in Pennsylvania (the birthplace of liberty) are accurate, safe, and secure. At the same time, barriers and grave threats to voting rights still exist.

We are in chaotic times where our Constitution, the rule of law, and the promise of a more perfect union are being undermined.

Our county boards of elections can work to do all that they can to ensure every vote is counted and that they prioritize enfranchisement as our Constitution intended.

Each of the 67 counties across the commonwealth can consider adopting the most effective policy — automatic return of flawed ballots with instructions on how to cure the ballot.

Your voters are counting on you. In this critical moment, voting isn’t just about participating in our democracy; it’s about protecting it.

Rebecca Cusumano-Seidel is an advocacy and policy strategist at the ACLU of Pennsylvania.