HARRISBURG, Pa. — We are nearly two weeks away from the November 2nd municipal election and if you're requesting a mail-in ballot, the Wolf Administration says you must foot the postage costs.
Voters are mixed on this year's decision.
"I think it's a great idea, I think we should save more money and if they don't want to pay for the postage, they could go to the polls," said Lisa Fraker, a poll worker.
On the other hand, one Harrisburg resident says the decision makes him feel uneasy.
"I think we should be making voting instead of more difficult. The fact that you have to add postage to a ballot, does make it more difficult for more voters," said voter Tim Zigler.
For the first time in 2020, the Wolf administration used grant funding to cover postage costs for mail-in ballots. However this year, there's no money to cover that expense.
"The big difference, the ballots are longer, this is a municipal election. In some counties those ballots are three pages. When those ballots make their way up to 3 pages it just costs more money," said Veronica Degraffenreid, the acting Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Degraffenreid said so far 960,000 voters have requested mail in ballots. If one ballot requires at least one postage stamp of 0.58 cents, it would cost the state at least $556,800 to cover the postage costs.
Depending how many stamps voters will need, election officials say they must check with the postal service as the weight of each ballot varies by county.
In a statement to FOX 43, the USPS wrote:
"In cases where a ballot enters the mail stream without proper amount of postage, the postal service will deliver the ballot and thereafter attempt to collect postage from the appropriate Board of Elections."
The deadline to sign up to vote by mail is October 26th and mail-in ballots must arrive to the county board of elections by 8PM on election day. For more information on voting you can click here.