Pennsylvania Counties' Notice-and-Cure Policies

*Update* October 24, 2025: In light of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s recent decision in Center for Coalfield Justice v. Washington County Board of Elections, the ACLU of Pennsylvania expects that all counties should, at a minimum, provide Pennsylvania's Statewide Uniform Registry of Elections (SURE) system notice to voters who have submitted a mail ballot with a disqualifying defect.

This decision will allow voters who make a mistake on their mail ballot to cast a provisional vote on Election Day in case their mail ballot is deemed defective.

The court also held that accurate and timely entry of voter data into the SURE system – which triggers an email alerting the voter that they have submitted a defective mail ballot and allows voters to check their ballot status on the Department of State website – is the “minimal process” that is due.

Beyond using the SURE system and the provisional ballot process, the ACLU of Pennsylvania encourages counties to continue enacting robust “notice and cure” procedures to maximize the number of voters whose mail-in ballots can be counted.

We also welcome Pennsylvania voters to share information or problems with 'notice and cure' practices in their counties.

The information below is a snapshot in time of the counties’ “notice and cure” policies in October 2024 and has been archived as of October 2025.

As of October 2024

Through Right-To-Know requests and analysis of SURE system data, the ACLU of Pennsylvania compiled the "notice and cure" policies of the commonwealth's 67 counties. Notice-and-cure is a practice in which county elections offices notify voters of errors and permit them to correct those errors before polls close on Election Day.

The majority of counties in Pennsylvania, including counties that lean both Democratic and Republican, allow “curing” for mail ballots when the voter has made a mistake when completing the packet. At least 36 counties give voters the opportunity to cure mail ballots with disqualifying errors, such as a mistake on the declaration envelope or a missing secrecy envelope.

An additional ten counties do not have in-office curing but do enter accurate ballot statuses into the Pennsylvania Department of State’s SURE system. Those voters are then notified about their option to vote a provisional ballot at their precinct on Election Day in order to preserve their right to vote.

At least 16 counties don't give voters any notice or opportunity to cure their mail ballots, and the policies of the remaining five counties are unknown at this time.