Number of rejected absentee ballot applications up in Bucks

Problems with birth dates and signatures, as well as other issues, sink 600 absentees ballot applications. That’s more than in previous election years.

With just a week to go until the Nov. 2 election, Bucks County voting officials say they’ve rejected more applications for absentee ballots than in past years.

Deena Dean, director of the Board of Elections and Voter Registration for Bucks County, said of the just over 11,000 absentee ballot applications that have come in, more than 600 have been rejected.

“There’s various reasons that they’re being rejected. Some of them include that the signature does not match, birth date does not match, they’ve failed to complete the application, possibly sign it,” said Dean. “There’s many different variations of reasons.”

Dean said she does not know the party affiliation of those whose applications have been rejected.

The bounty of rejected absentee ballots in Bucks County is of particular interest this election because Congressman Patrick Murphy, a Democrat, is engaged in a tight election with Republican Mike Fitzpatrick. Four years ago, Murphy won the seat from Fitzpatrick by only about 1,000 votes.