Seven counties in Pennsylvania to wait after election day to process postal ballots

According to local officials, seven of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties will wait to count the ballots in the mail until after the election, potentially delaying when media organizations are able to project a winner in the state. .

Pennsylvania allows counties to begin processing mail-in ballots on the morning of election day, but officials from Beaver, Cumberland, Franklin, Greene, Juniata, Mercer and Montour – all counties that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 – said concerns over staffing and resources caused them to delay counting postal ballots.

It’s unclear what impact this might have on the results schedule. The counties vary in population size, but about 150,000 combined voters in those areas have requested mail-in ballots according to state data.

Trump won Pennsylvania by just over 44,000 votes in 2016 and with 20 electoral college votes the state could determine the winner of this year’s election. Polls have consistently shown Joe Biden to lead Trump in the state by a few percentage points.

Forest County, where Trump also won, said it also plans to wait to count its mail-in ballots, depending on the workload on Election Day.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said she was working to have conversations with those counties, urging them to start counting on Tuesday.

“Even if you could only do one part [of the process], to start as early as humanly possible on Election Day is important for every county of any size, ”Boockvar told reporters on Friday.

Beaver County Commissioner Jack Manning said the ability to pre-solicit, a technical term for opening mail-in ballots and preparing them for the counting process, before election day, would have done everything the difference. Efforts to advance the pre-prospecting schedule have been limited after legal battles and party interests left the siege deadlocked last week.

“We don’t have the capacity to safely work and supervise 129 polling places, secure those votes on polling day and simultaneously open 35,000 postal votes, then start scanning manually after polls close. polling stations Tuesday, “Manning wrote in an email to NBC. News.

“We will manage and count the votes from the polling stations on Tuesday evening, then start over in the morning on the postal ballots.”

Boockvar also agreed that the pre-solicitation would have been “an efficient election administration”.

“This is what 46 states across the country have,” Boockvar said. “And we’re one of the few states that hasn’t found a way to get this law passed.”

The current canvassing schedule allows counties to start processing mail-in ballots until 7:00 a.m. AND on polling day. Any decision to delay this process is fully consistent with the state’s electoral status.

Mike Belding, chairman of the Greene County Commissioners, says the decision to delay was made “based on county staff and the availability of people to work both at the polling stations and to begin processing ballots. vote”.

Belding, who said the county had purchased envelope openers and a high-speed scanner, said he was confident that waiting to count ballots in the mail would not delay reporting his region’s overall results, stating: “Greene County will not delay election results in the Southwestern PA.”

Boockvar noted that while some of those counties raised the lack of resources, at least four counties had not applied for the funding grant provided by the state, adding: “Please send us the receipts and we are happy to give you. money. “

But county election officials say it’s too late, as plans and staffing are already in place.

“There is absolutely nothing the state can provide now that will change our plans,” said Holly Brandon, Chief Clerk of Montour County.

“I can’t imagine this November 3 being a quiet day at the polls, especially in light of the lawsuits, voter mistrust of the process and the USPS, reckless rhetoric and a number of new laws that have taxed us incredibly, ”Brandon added.