Pennsylvania’s election results could take days
Secretary of state warns of likely delays before initial tally of votes are completed
Americans may need to wait for days before the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania completes its initial tally of votes, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said Wednesday.
Democratic and Republican leaders of the Keystone State agree that counties will need a head start counting millions of mail-in ballots if it has any hope of quickly reporting results in the fierce presidential race.
But in an interview with The Morning Call, Boockvar said she is not confident the two sides will agree on legislation permitting them to start tabulating results before Election Day. Without that legislative change, results will be significantly delayed compared with past presidential elections, she said.
“The overwhelming majority of ballots ... will be counted in a matter of days,” she said. “Whenpeople are talking about weeks, I don’t think you’re going to see that in Pennsylvania at all. I think the overwhelming majority of ballots will be counted by the weekend, honestly, and maybe even significantly sooner.
“Are we going to have results by midnight on election night if wehave 3 million mailed ballots
submitted?” she said. “No, we’re not.”
In case no legislative fix emerges, Boockvar said, the state is preparing to be more transparent about election results. Instead of just reporting how many votes each candidate has received, Boockvar said she wants the state to share how many ballots remain to be counted, which counties they came from and the party affiliation of those voters.
In addition, Boockvar, Pennsylvania’s chief election official, said she will call on counties to routinely report their mail-in ballot tallies instead of all at once. This should prevent a jarring swing in results that could erode voter confidence, she said. Significantly more Democratic voters are registered to vote by mail across Pennsylvania, which could cause a potential Republican lead to suddenly vanish if mail-in ballots are reported all at once.
“These conversations are just starting, but I would like to see talks about how we are reporting things,” Boockvar said. “You could see shifts that make sense but would feed the fear. If it’s going to be a close race, I want to keep all the counting consistent.”
Legislative gridlock
Following the June 2 primary, the Department of State recommended changes to the newelection law. Chief among them was allowing counties to start counting mail-in ballots up to three weeks before Election Day. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, about half of all voters in the primary voted by mail, and local election officials were overwhelmed.
Several counties took weeks to count their results, and some races went days before being called. In Lehigh County, it took three days before incumbent state Rep. Peter Schweyer could declare victory over challenger Enid Santiago.
While Northampton County managed to report its results hours after polls closed, Chief Registrar Amy Cozze warned that it would not be able to repeat that performance in the general election, when thousands more voters would cast a ballot.
Republican legislators countered with their own plan that would give counties a threeday head start. But the bill also included language Gov. Tom Wolf opposes, such as giving voters less time to register to vote, granting counties more power to challenge ballots over signatures and providing voters less time to request a mail-in ballot. Wolf has vowed to veto the bill with those provisions in place. Negotiations have made little to no progress, and Election Day is 41 days away.
Boockvar said she hopes lawmakers strip down the bill and address known problems that all sides agree must be
addressed, such as the head start of counting ballots and granting counties more leeway with staffing their polling places.
“If they had just introduced a bill that set three days of precanvassing, it wouldstill nothavebeen nearly enough, but I would have taken it,” she said, referring to the Republican-controlled General Assembly. “But that’s not what they did. They introduced a bill thathaswhatwebelievearesignificant voter suppression initiatives that makeitharderforPennsylvanians to cast their ballots.”
Boockvar said the three-day proposal supported by Republicans doesn’t take into account that the three days before an election are often the busiest for everycounty. Electionworkersare wrestling with the logistics of the election, suchasdelivering equipment to polling places and finding replacements for poll workers whocall out at the last minute.
Under all proposals, counties would not be allowed to release any figures on the results of the counted ballots. The tallying process would also be open to observers to ensure that ballots are not being altered.
“If it ended up being seven or 10 days [for precanvassing], that would be fine,” she said.
The Republican-backed plan passed the House largely along partisan lines and has been sent to the Senate. The bill is before the Appropriations Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Pat Browne, R-Allentown. Browne
was not available for comment. Acall to a GOPspokesperson was also not returned.
Adapting from the primary
While there are no compromises within sight, Boockvar said voters should expect to see some improvements from the primary. Between the new mail-in ballot system and the pandemic, the primaryserved as atrial byfirefor county election officials. While taxing, the experience should leave them with a better idea of what to expect and what they’ll need to do to keep up with the estimated 3 million mail-in and absentee ballots expected this time around.
As recently as January, state officials expected maybe 8% of voters would cast a mail-in ballot, Boockvar said. Given the rapid changes brought on by the pandemic, counties had little chance to prepare when about half of all voters cast their ballot through the mail. Nowthat counties have seen what parts of their election systems grew stressed in the primary, she’s hopeful they’ll be better able to keep up.
Boockvar bristled when reminded of pundits who have said Pennsylvania could become the next “hanging chad” election moment. The 2000 presidential election was determined by 537 votes in Florida, and recounts dragged on for weeks as the
campaigns of Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore battled over how long the counts could last. Much of the media focus atthe time wasonhowelection officials interpreted punchout paper ballots.
“It’s going to take longer to count 3 million. There is no question about that. Does that make it less reliable, less secure? No, it
does not,” Boockvar said.
Within the past year, all of Pennsylvania’s counties switched to voting systems that produce a paper trail that voters can review before submitting, Boockvar noted. Counties are working hard togetthestaffandequipmentthey need to tally results as quickly as possible. Voters shouldhaveconfidence in the results, she said.
“We are talking about time. Do weneedtobepatientaboutcounting 10 times as many ballots as we haveinpast elections? Wedo,” she said. “It is not about the quirky situation we saw in Florida.”