Chester County Reneging on Court Commitment?

As the 2026 General Election approaches, county election offices are preparing for the season by printing ballots, scheduling Logic and Accuracy Testing of ballot scanners, and discussing mail-in ballot processing and collection.

As part of that, Chester County’s Board of Elections is meeting on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. about a proposal to reinstate a practice ended in 2022 – unmanned, 24-hour, 7 day a week, ballot drop boxes. Why did the county stop using unmanned drop boxes and why do some want them back?

USPS Rules and Drop Boxes

Due to the proposed USPS rules regarding the delivery of ballots, counties have been unsure about the delivery and return process of mail-in or absentee ballots. However, on September 14, 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to lift a U.S. Circuit Court injunction that blocked the implementation of the new USPS rules. This effectively ends any questions about the delivery of ballots by the USPS. Things will proceed as usual.

During the uncertainty many counties looked for alternative ballot delivery and return measures, so they turned to drop boxes. Some counties, such as Bucks and Lehigh, have already announced plans to increase the number of drop boxes available to voters. Others are opening satellite and pop-up election offices for people to walk in, request a mail-in ballot, vote it, and immediately return it to the election worker. Several counties, including Philadelphia, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties have drop boxes available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7) for voters to return their completed ballots. Chester County used to be one of them, and it wants to return to the practice.

Cameras Captured Voter Fraud

During the 2022 Primary Election season, Chester County had 13 drop boxes, 11 were manned with limited operating hours and two were unmanned with cameras stationed on the receptacles and were open 24/7 for voters to return completed ballots. The notice shown above was prominently displayed on each box. Election law is clear. Unless written documentation is provided to show extenuating circumstances, each voter can mail or submit only his/her own ballot.

Some in the community suspected that multiple ballots were deposited by individual voters, in violation of election law. That concern led Mr. Daryl Campbell to request the surveillance videos from the unmanned drop boxes. When he eventually received and reviewed the videos, they proved the concern was founded. Despite instructions and warnings on the boxes, hundreds of instances of people dropping more than one ballot in the drop boxes were recorded.

Mr. Campbell and three others filed a law suit against Chester County for not properly securing ballots, for allowing invalid ballots to be commingled with valid ballots, and for diluting legitimate votes with invalid ones. In a hearing before Judge William P. Mahon, Chester County attorneys agreed that the Board of Elections would:

• limit the hours of all drop boxes;
• monitor all receptacles with paid staff to ensure only one ballot per person is submitted;
• lock drop boxes when not monitored;
• install video cameras on all boxes;
• preserve the video footage from drop box cameras for at least 90 days following the election;
• create an incident report concerning anyone who attempts to deposit more than one ballot without an accompanying certification from a disabled voter. The incident shall be referred to the District Attorney for criminal investigation.

These procedural changes were outlined in a footnote to an order signed by Judge Mahon on October 19, 2022, which denied the Plaintiff’s request for injunctive relief. Since Chester County agreed to secure the drop boxes, there was no further relief necessary.

Since that time, the Chester County Board of Elections maintained the security procedures outlined to Court. No other lawsuits have been filed complaining that multiple ballots were submitted by one person.

Preventing or Fomenting Fraud?

New policies reduced the risk of illegal voting through drop boxes, and, by all accounts, those policies were working well. Nevertheless, the Chester County Board of Elections will be discussing adding three unmanned drop boxes to their inventory of 13 receptacles. The new boxes would be open 24/7 to allow ballots to be deposited without oversight by election workers. This creates the perfect condition for election fraud.

Commissioner Josh Maxwell and Commissioner Marian Moskowitz were Defendants in the 2022 lawsuit and should understand why those procedures were put in place. Have they forgotten why the drop box locations were only accessible during limited hours and were staffed with paid employees for the last four years? Have they forgotten the video showing over 300 people dropping off multiple ballots at just one location in a two-week span? Do the commitments made to the court come with an expiration date?

The Pennsylvania Election Code requires that mail-in and absentee ballots are returned either by mail or in person by the person to whom the ballot belongs. How is Chester County or any other county with 24/7 unmanned drop boxes ensuring they are upholding the Election Code? Ballots completed, mailed, or dropped off by someone other than the voter should not be counted according to the law. However, once they are mixed with other ballots, it is nearly impossible to identify fraudulently cast ballots, and it dilutes legally cast ballots.

If Chester County goes back to the policy of having drop boxes open around the clock with no security in place, then the Board of Elections is not serious about its mission to conduct fair, accurate, and impartial elections. The board already knows that if left unsupervised people will ignore the rules of one person, one ballot. The videos proved that. Why open this door to fraud once it’s been closed?

Bottom line…

Chester County’s Voter Services Department lost the trust of county residents after two major election errors over the last two years. The department has a very inexperienced staff, including a new director. Rather than trying to rebuild the trust of residents by successfully managing the election process for the 2026 General Election without complication, the Chester County Board of Elections may be gambling that residents won’t remember their failings or care about fraud. Are they right?