Absentee ballots to miss initial count
Trending
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- When Blair County's votes are counted on the night of the April 28 primary, the totals will come up short because absentee and mailed ballots won't be included.
The same is likely in other Pennsylvania counties where leaders are planning their first elections since the state's decision to accept mail-in ballots from any voter.
"The whole state will be missing a lot of (counted) votes on election night," Blair County Director of Elections Sarah Seymour said. "Our hope is that the Legislature would amend the law … so the vote-counting (of mailed ballots) could start earlier … but I don't know if that will happen."
Blair County has an ongoing history of success when it comes to counting ballots on election night and rendering unofficial results. Computers have permitted the counting process to go faster and in Blair County, it usually wraps up around 10:30 p.m. -- about 2.5 hours after the 93 voting precincts close -- with unofficial results offering a good indication of who won and by how much.
One exception would be in 2019, when county residents had to wait a few days for nominees of the Republican party commissioners race to be decided based on absentee ballots.
In that contest, when the election-night ballot counting finished, Bruce Kelly of Altoona was three votes ahead of Bruce Erb of Frankstown Township. Three days later after absentee ballots were reviewed and counted, Erb was declared the party's nominee with 52 more votes than Kelly. That was the same race in which Amy Webster of Hollidaysburg topped the Republican ticket.
Seymore said she cannot predict how many Blair County residents will ask for newly legalized mail-in ballots by the deadline of April 21.
But the interest is there, she said, based on responses to the state's recent launch of a website where voters can apply for a mail-in or an absentee ballot.
Absentee ballots, which have been available in prior elections, remain available for those traveling on election day or dealing with a health-related condition which keeps them from voting in person.
Anyone else who wants to vote by mail, for any other reason, can now request a mail-in ballot.
In a presidential election year, Seymour said Blair County typically gets about 2,800 absentee ballots.
In election years with only municipal races on the ballot, Blair County generally gets less than 1,000 absentee ballots, she said.
Based on other states where mail-in voting has been available, the option is expected to be popular throughout Pennsylvania.
The counting process
In preparation for the presidential election, the Blair County elections office recently received permission to hire a temporary staff member to help with the additional workload.
If that hiring isn't sufficient to help the office keep up with processing applications for mail-in ballots, Seymour said she will be ready to ask for more help.
Still, the law dictates that the counting of mailed ballots will start no earlier than 8 p.m. on election night, during the same time frame when county employees are handling ballots coming in from the precincts.
Blair County commissioners, who make up the county's elections board, will be responsible for the counting of mailed ballots with assistance from county staffers. They are starting at 8 p.m. on election night and will stop when votes from the last precinct are recorded, Seymour said. Then they'll resume the next day.
Some counties don't plan to start counting mailed ballots until Wednesday morning, reasoning that the job will stretch into Thursday or Friday before those votes are ready to be added to ones cast Tuesday night.
Bucks County Director of Elections Tom Freitag recently advised commissioners in that county that his office won't have accurate vote totals until a few days after the primary.
"So if there's an election that's somewhat close, it's really going to be up in the air until two, three days later?" Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo asked Freitag.
"Yes, probably," Freitag responded.
Lancaster County used to count absentee ballots on Tuesday night with votes cast at the polls so its unofficial results either aligned or were close to aligning with official results. But that's going to change this year, according to Randall O. Wenger, chief clerk of the elections board.
"The election night numbers," Wenger said, "are going to be minus what we anticipate will be a fairly sizable number of ballots that have not yet been counted and will be counted later that week."
Lycoming County is expecting the same, Elections Director Forrest Lehman said.
"Your universe of uncounted ballots just blew up big time on election night," he said.
An option not currently allowed
Seymour said that if the law permitted counties to start reviewing and scanning mailed-in ballots before 8 p.m. on election night, those votes could be ready for a merger with votes from the polls. And it is possible, she said, for mailed vote totals to remain hidden while the polls are open.
But that option would require the lawmakers to amend the recent law, she said.
State officials, meanwhile, believe that concerns raised so far can be addressed through adjustments in staffing, equipment and procedures.
"There are lots of good procedures that have been developed over time in other places," said Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar, whose Department of State oversees elections. "We are going to be sharing those. And I think as long as the counties plan for that extra staffing at 8 p.m. on Election Day, it's going to be fine."
But for any close race in Pennsylvania's upcoming primary, the candidates -- including those seeking their party's nomination for president -- may be left waiting for a few days until the counties finish counting ballots.
"No county wants to be the reason we don't know the leader of the free world on election night," said Lee Soltysiak, Montgomery County's chief operating officer and clerk of its election board. "And that's the position, depending on the margin, we're all likely to be in."