BETHLEHEM, Pa. — While Pennsylvania House Democrats have passed a bill that would grant counties more time to pre-canvass mail-in ballots, local election officials anticipate Pennsylvanians and the rest of the country may be waiting days to determine the presidential winner in November.
Election officials found themselves ill-equipped to sort through Pennsylvania's 2.6 million mail-in ballots in 2020.
Counties were still adapting to the new mail-in ballot process, and state law forbade them from opening ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. As a result, Pennsylvania and the nation waited four days before it became clear Democrat Joe Biden had carried the state and won the election.
Four years later, election officials are bracing for more of the same.
While county election officials and the County Commissioner Association of Pennsylvania have spent years asking for a head start on counting mail-in elections, changes to the law seem unlikely to occur by November.
Lehigh County Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said he expects his office won't be able to finish tallying mail-in and absentee ballots until the evening of Nov. 6 — the day after Election Day.
"There is no way this is going to pass without voter ID."State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton/Lehigh
The 2020 election
If mail-in and absentee ballot totals approach the 2020 figures, his staff will need to sort through 79,000 paper ballots, flatten them and run them through scanning machines.
That year, his office needed four days to count all the mail-in and absentee ballots. The county has since acquired better equipment and brought on more staff, so things should go faster, Benyo said. However, that may not satisfy an impatient public — especially if Pennsylvania proves to be a tipping point in the presidential race.
"These things take time. There's only so many minutes in 13 hours," Benyo said, referring to the time staff have to canvass mail-in ballots before in-person polls close.
Benyo said the delay would likely to be worse in Allegheny County and Philadelphia, which each had more than 350,000 mail-in ballots in 2020.
In an interview on April 23, Northampton County Elections Registrar Christopher Commini also had doubts his staff would be able to count all of its mail-in ballots on Election Day in November.
While his team pre-canvassed more than 20,000 ballots this primary with hours to spare, that may not be feasible in the fall. In 2020, the county received more than 73,000 mail-in ballots; a similar total may be too much to handle on Election Day, he said.
'No way' fix passes
Pennsylvania House Democrats passed legislation last week that would allow counties to get ahead of the mail-in ballots by pre-canvassing up to a week ahead of Election Day. Under existing rules, counties would be able to prepare and scan the ballots, but workers would not be allowed to look at the results of those ballots until polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.
However, the bill passed along party lines without a single Republican vote. House Minority Leader Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, acknowledged the bill would allow the counties to work faster but said it didn't include anything about voter ID, a Republican-supported change that Democrats have long opposed.
"Requiring identification each time a person votes is not only widely supported, but is broadly believed to be a common sense election reform that will increase confidence in the conduct of Pennsylvania’s elections," Cutler said in a news release.
In an email, state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Lehigh/Bucks, did not directly answer whether he would support HB 847. Instead, he offered support for Senate Bill 1038, a bill he proposed that would require mail-in ballots be processed at their voters' local polling place instead of a centralized location.
Current mail-in ballots laws prevent mail-in voters from changing their minds after they mail their ballot, Coleman said. His plan would give voters that option, he said. SB 1038 has not advanced out of committee since its introduction in January, state records show.
State Sen. Nick Miller, D-Lehigh/Northampton, did not respond to a request for comment.
State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton/Lehigh, said Friday that while she supports giving counties more time to pre-canvass, the bill has little hope of passing the Republican-controlled Senate in its present form. Typically, election reform has required compromise between the two parties, she said.
Act 77 of 2019, the law she sponsored that allowed no-excuse mail-in ballots, only passed because it also eliminated party-line voting — something Republicans had long sought.
Boscola, who is known for for her independent streak, said she is not necessarily opposed to voter ID. She believes there's room to cut a deal that would give each party a victory, but she doubted party leaders would be able to bridge the gap ahead of the November election.
Counties will most likely be left in a difficult spot in another heated Election Day, she said.
"I know the Republicans in the Senate. They wouldn't do any election law changes [alone]. It's going to be a package," said Boscola, a 25-year veteran of the Senate. "There is no way this is going to pass without voter ID."
Staff writer Ryan Gaylor contributed to this report.
