Montco ballot canvass continues

Official count requires provisional, military tally

NORRISTOWN » Montgomery County election officials said there are a number of ballots still under review as part of the official canvassing process and officials must still count or reconcile provisional, military and overseas ballots, as well as mail-in ballots that were received by a court-ordered Friday deadline.

The majority of the potential outstanding votes involve provisional ballots cast in person, which total approximately 6,200, according to Kelly Cofrancisco, di

rector of communications for the county commissioners.

“We are in the process of reconciling these ballots and making determinations as to whether they will be counted,” Cofrancisco said on Friday. “The majority of these appear to be people who applied for a mail-in ballot but voted a provisional ballot inperson because they were not sure if their mail-in ballot had been received. If the voter’s mail-in ballot was received on time, the provisional ballot will not be counted.”

Military and overseas ballots can be received until 5 p.m. Nov. 10 and will have to be counted. As of Friday, there were approximately 2,700 military and overseas ballots received, officials said.

“The military and overseas ballots and any provisional ballots, or ballots that need further verifications will be handled during the remainder of our canvass and tabulation process, which will continue until we are completed,” Cofrancisco said.

Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order last week stating that election officials can count mailed ballots that were sent on or before Election Day and arrived at election offices by 5 p.m. Friday.

The county had received 1,005 such ballots by Friday’s deadline.

“Those ballots will be kept separate and the results will not be included in our totals until we receive additional guidance from the Department of State,” Cofrancisco explained.

Officials previously said 279,956 people had applied for a mail-in ballot during the general election. By 12:30 a.m. Thursday, the county had received 243,408 mail-in ballots and 240,086, or 98.64%, had been counted, according to the county’s election dashboard that displays unofficial election results.

Pennsylvania elections officials were not permitted to process mail-in ballots until Election Day under state law.

As the canvassing process continues, ballots that are eligible to be counted will be added to the dashboard totals, county officials said.

The county dashboard is available at https://electionresults-montcopa.hub.arcgis.com/