LEBANON, Pa. — Many Pennsylvania counties have begun sending out mail-in ballots to voters. County election offices are preparing to receive thousands of mail-in ballots, more than they ever had before, this Election Day. Lebanon County Director of Elections Michael Anderson is gave us a look inside the vault where the mail-in ballots from voters in Lebanon County will be kept.
"We sort them by precinct, then we got through and check each ballot," said Anderson. "We make sure everything that's on here is correct, the signature is correct."
Every mail-in ballot that comes in has a unique bar code on the pre-paid return envelope linked to the voter's information.
"We'll scan it, the bar code, and make sure that person, that voter matches what we have here," said Anderson. "And the signatures match and then that actually gets scanned in that the ballot has been received."
That unique bar code, Anderson days, is one of many security measures in place to ensure every eligible voter only votes once.
"What's how we prevent someone from voting twice," said Anderson. "It all relates to these bar codes and how we have it set up in our system to make sure we only receive it once."
The ballots will be kept in the vault until 7 a.m. on Election Day. That is when the ballots will be opened and counted. Anderson says, they will constantly be counting ballots and envelopes throughout the process to ensure everything matches their records.
"it's really important people understand that all the election directors take this very serious," said Anderson. "And they have security procedures in place to stop people that are intentionally trying to make it more difficult to vote."
Anderson says he trusts voting by mail-in, he plans to vote that way as well.
Anderson also reminds people voting by mail to make sure they put their ballot inside the secrecy envelope, then place that inside the pre-paid return envelope. Without the secrecy envelope, your vote will not be county.