The long process of counting mail ballots

Here’s how those workers count mail ballots in Philadelphia, a process that resembles the counting in many other large Pennsylvania counties, with variations depending on the available equipment and staffing, as well as the sheer number of ballots:

On Election Day, all ballots received by mail are brought into the counting room from a secure location. They are reviewed to make sure that each voter has dated and signed the outer mailing envelope, said Lisa Deeley, chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, the body charged with counting the city’s votes.

The envelopes are then put through an extractor machine, which removes the inner secrecy envelope from the outer envelope. The secrecy envelope, which contains the actual ballot, is opened, and the ballot is taken out. Once removed, these ballots are put in a tray and taken into another area where they’re unfolded, sent to yet another area, and finally scanned by another machine that then tabulates them.

The fate of ballots that aren’t enclosed in a privacy envelope, so-called “naked” ballots, depends on when they’re discovered. If the envelope the ballot is enclosed in doesn’t look thick enough, or if the privacy window from the outside envelope shows the ballot itself, it is considered “naked.”

If the fault is discovered before counting, election workers in Philadelphia, among other counties, notify the voter via email and give the option of applying for another ballot. But if the naked ballot isn’t discovered until counting begins, the voter is notified that their vote had to be discarded.

“It is a very long process,” Deeley said. “It’s like making a cake. We start at the bottom and build layer upon layer. When all of the layers are complete, we can actually show the voters numbers.”

After the polls close at 8 p.m., the results from the mail ballots that have been counted up to that point will be reported alongside the in-person votes, Deeley said.