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Allegheny County sending out more than 28,000 new ballots after voters received wrong ones

ALLEGHENY CO., Pa. — Allegheny County is now in the process of sending out more than 28,000 new mail-in ballots to voters who received incorrect ones over the past few weeks.

The problem was quickly identified to be an error through a third-party printing vendor, Midwest Direct, and the county is working to correct it.

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This comes days after county officials acknowledged the issue with the ballots, but the incident has not shaken the confidence the confidence of Pa. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar.

“I don’t have any concerns with more than one ballot per person being counted," she said.

Boockvar’s office said it has been contact with Midwest Direct, as well as Allegheny and Westmoreland counties -- which is dealing with its own delay in the mailing of ballots with that same vendor.

Boockvar said security measures are in place to prevent fraud involving the incorrect ballots.

“Each voter can only vote once, and our system would pick it up if someone tried to submit more than one," she said.

She also made a final plea to state legislators to allow for the pre-canvassing of mail-in ballots. By law, mail-in ballots cannot be processed until 7 a.m. on Election Day -- a time-consuming process election officials in several counties tell Channel 11 will cause results to be delayed for several days.

“The issue of pre-canvassing is not a party issue, it’s not a particular slant in any direction. This is something that every one of the 67 counties has been urging. This is something that every voter in the Commonwealth, and frankly in the nation, has been urging," said Boockvar.

A lot of political experts expect more Democrats will be using mail-in ballots than Republicans, and the early numbers suggest that is the case.

Boockvar said 75% of mail-in ballots returned so far statewide are from registered Democrats.