Poll workers immediately pivoted to provisional ballots. Voters were asked to fill out a paper ballot, sign the outer envelope, drop it in a locked box, and later received a receipt with a tracking number. The Chester County Board of Elections will open each envelope in the coming days, verify the voter’s registration, and add valid ballots to the official count

County staff printed corrected poll books on the spot and rushed them to precincts through a van, CBS News reported. By 3:45 p.m., every polling place had the full voter list, and late-arriving independents could use the regular machines.

In order to offset morning delays and long lines, a Common Pleas judge extended voting hours until 10 p.m., giving voters two extra hours.

Robert Healy, a 61-year-old independent from West Chester, spent twenty minutes on a provisional ballot and watched two voters behind him leave for work without voting. “It’s the first time in my adult life I’ve worried my vote might not count,” he said.

Some precincts briefly ran low on provisional envelopes, but supervisors confirm every registered voter who stayed in line cast a ballot.

Public Information Officer Becky Brain promised a formal review.

“We will find exactly how third-party voters were left out and fix the process so this never happens again.”

Republican Commissioner Eric Roe called the error “unacceptable” and pledged that every provisional ballot will be “examined with a microscope.” Democratic Commissioner Josh Maxwell echoed the commitment and noted the county’s large stockpile of provisional forms kept the day from becoming a total meltdown.

Chester County uses Pennsylvania’s newer envelope design, which prints the signature line in bold and has cut rejection rates for missing signatures.

In addition to a number of low level municipal elections, Pennsylvania is the site of pivotal state Supreme Court races. While the Democrat-backed judges are listed as “nonpartisan,” they have received millions of dollars in funding from the party and affiliated groups.