All eyes will be on Pennsylvania on Election Day, and possibly for days to come, as the Commonwealth faces a… key battlefield in the race for the White House.
The winner of the Keystone State’s 19 electoral votes may not be clear on election night.
State law does not allow election workers in Pennsylvania to begin opening or counting ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day, the same time polling stations opened for in-person voting. More than two million voters in the state have requested a mail-in ballot for this election.
Many states allow workers to start preparing mail-in ballots before Election Day, meaning votes can be counted more quickly.
Four years ago, former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement was born in Pennsylvania while he was still president spreading disinformation about voter fraud. In reality, Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania narrowed as its 67 counties worked around the clock to process millions of mail-in ballots. President Biden was finally declared the projected winner of Pennsylvania in the late morning of Saturday, November 7. Trump won the state 2016.
However, it is difficult to say whether the timing will be similar this year. Experts told CBS News.
Just because the results aren’t immediately available doesn’t mean anything went wrong or that fraud is involved, experts and officials say.
“That’s true no evidence whatsoever that voter fraud is taking place — in any form is widespread,” Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s top elections official, told CBS News earlier this year.
Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija said expected the province will finish counting votes late Wednesday afternoon.
Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, chairman of the county elections board, did not make a prediction but said counting votes will take time.
“It will probably be virtually impossible for us to be ready on the night of the election, or perhaps even early in the morning after the election,” he said.
If a race is close, the final results may take even longer. Pennsylvania has an automatic recount if the margin in a statewide race is 0.5% of the vote or less. The state also allows losing candidates to request an automatic recount if they pay for it. Depending on the findings, a refund may be issued.
Officials in Philadelphia and surrounding counties said they are prepared to count ballots on Election Day and ensure the election is secure.
