Mail-in ballots spur fight over deadline

Some officials are warning that a flood of mail-in ballots will create problems in Tuesday’s primary election.

HARRISBURG, PA. » Some county and state officials are warning that a flood of mailed-in ballots in Pennsylvania — fueled by fears of in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic — will create problems in Tuesday’s primary election that must be fixed before they cause a disaster in this battleground state in November’s presidential election.

For one, they are warning that there will be no way to produce timely election results in November unless the law changes to allow counties to process mailed-in ballots before Election Day. Even in Tuesday’s relatively low-turnout primary election, election night results might be unlikely in closely contested races, they say.

“No one wants to be in the situation where the U.S. presidential race is coming down to Pennsylvania and there is a week or two delay on us in delivering a victor,” said state Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia.

Boyle plans to sponsor legislation to give counties more time to process the ballots, starting the Saturday before the election.

Boyle, with support from county election directors, pushed for a similar change in March when lawmakers voted to delay the primary election by five weeks to June 2. However, it lacked support from Republicans

who control the House and Senate majorities.

Of more immediate concern is the question of whether voters can mail their ballots back to county election offices in time to be counted in Tuesday’s primary election. The deadline in state law is 8 p.m. on election night. But some ballots are still in the mail to voters, and it could take five days to a week for the post office to deliver the returned ballots to county election officials.