Delaware County outlines 2025 municipal election preparations and pilots electronic poll-book connectivity
Loading...
Summary
Elections staff told the board they are calibrating equipment, processing absentee ballots, training poll workers and planning a Sept. 17 pilot of connected electronic poll books to test midday reporting and real-time updates to reduce provisional ballots.
Delaware County elections staff told the Board of Elections on Aug. 26 that preparation for the 2025 municipal elections is well underway, with equipment calibration, candidate filings, voter-registration work and poll-worker recruitment ongoing. Jim Allen, presenting the director’s report, said the county expects more than 2,200 people to work polling places on election day.
Allen described a planned pilot demonstration, targeting about Sept. 17, to test full connectivity for electronic poll books (e-pollbooks) using data from a prior election. The pilot would simulate pushing turnout and mail-ballot-arrival information to poll pads so poll workers can print midday reports (sometimes called “strike lists”) and reduce the need for provisional ballots when a voter’s mail ballot shows as received.
“This is something that was unimaginable with paper poll books years ago,” Allen said, describing real-time push updates and an audit log of who made corrections and why. The county plans to document the pilot for the Pennsylvania Department of State in hopes the state will consider broader certification and use.
Board members asked whether the pilot would be conducted in a bipartisan way. Allen said training and procedures would be identical across poll workers and that the feature is part of certified equipment functions. He also confirmed staff will include instruction for poll workers and that any midday printing would not require continuous internet connectivity at precincts.
Other operational details: Staff said they continue to process mail and absentee applications and complete equipment checks before loading ballots. Voter-registration list maintenance was completed in July; staff reported mailing more than 11,000 address-verification letters and noted about 2,654 returns, including 1,186 undeliverable responses and 762 cancellations due to moves out of state.
What’s next: County staff will run the e-pollbook pilot, continue poll-worker training and document findings for the Department of State. Board members requested careful, bipartisan rollout and clear communication to parties and poll-watchers about any new procedures during the pilot.
