Pennsylvania’s early-voting option is a mess, but very popular

By Majlie de Puy Kamp, Tierney Sneed and Danny Freeman, CNN

Pittsburgh (CNN) — A cumbersome pre-election voting option in the largest battleground state caused frustration, long lines and claims of voter suppression earlier this week.

As former President Donald Trump and his proxies urged voters to cast their ballots early this election – an abrupt change from years of Republican attacks on early and mail-in voting across the country – several county offices in Pennsylvania faced a flood of people wanting to use the state’s “on-demand mail ballot voting” process.

In Bucks County, just outside of Philadelphia, voters waited several hours to apply for and submit their mail-in ballot on Tuesday, the last day for in-person early voting in the state, until a lawsuit filed by Trump’s campaign successfully extended the deadline.

The court case in Bucks County comes after a flurry of other lawsuits about mail-in ballots in the state challenging issues such as handwritten date requirements and whether to count provisional votes cast in-person by those who had their mail-in ballot rejected for technical reasons. The latter issue is before the US Supreme Court on emergency appeal.

Legal challenges to voting processes in the Keystone State are fueled in part by the lack of a single election authority in the state and compounded by a politically split state government which has been unable to iron out logistics in its relatively new – but popular – on-demand mail ballot voting procedure ahead of November 5.

In the previous presidential election, more than 3 million Pennsylvanians requested mail-in ballots and 85% – just over 2.6 million – voted by mail. To date, more than 2 million people have requested mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and so far, 71% – over 1.5 million – have returned them.

Unlike in most other states – the secretary of state in Pennsylvania cannot issue binding guidance to all counties on election matters, resulting in a patchwork of interpretations and processes.

“All 67 counties are sort of free to interpret state statute and when there is a gap in the law and it’s not totally clear, that’s where those the 67 counties can start running in different directions,” Jon Sherman, litigation director for voting rights group Fair Elections Center, said in an interview.

In its statement announcing the newly extended deadline this week, Bucks County called on state lawmakers for “much needed reform and clarity in the election law and to codify what is being decided in courts.”

One key issue left unaddressed by Pennsylvania’s state legislature is its restrictive pre-processing policies for mail-in ballots: election officials are only allowed to start canvassing the mailed ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day, leading to unnecessarily delayed results.

Republicans change their tune

No-excuse mail-in voting in Pennsylvania is fairly new: Act 77 was passed just five years ago, right before the pandemic, and has since survived attempts by Republican lawmakers to block it through the courts.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Republicans appear to embrace mail-in voting this election cycle. Trump has been actively encouraging voters to get their ballots in early and grassroots organizations are going door-to-door in swing states to “chase” mail ballots in an effort to increase voter turnout.

“There’s been a recognition among Republicans political elites that this is a more convenient method of voting for a lot of people, especially older people who tend to be more Republican,” said Dan Mallinson, associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg.

But the process’ popularity among voters creates a challenge for election workers.

As in about a dozen other states, pre-election voting in Pennsylvania essentially means filling out a mail-in ballot in-person.

In one transaction, voters apply for, complete and submit their mail-in ballot at a designated election site before Election Day. It’s a convenient, albeit time-consuming, option for voters looking to cast their ballot before November 5th. If everything goes right, the whole process can take up to 12 minutes per voter resulting in the long lines seen in Pennsylvania this week.

Coupled with voters’ inexperience with the process, on-demand mail ballot voting has become vulnerable to unsubstantiated claims about the procedures that go viral on social media.

In Allegheny County, election officials put out a statement on Wednesday debunking a video seen millions of times on social media alleging non-citizens cut the line and were allowed to vote at an on-demand voting site. In reality, the video showed a group of registered voters who needed the assistance of translators to cast their ballot, according to a county spokesperson.

The case filed by the Trump campaign on Wednesday morning, claimed Bucks County illegally turned “many” voters away before the 5 p.m. deadline on Tuesday, putting forward affidavits from three individuals who said they weren’t allowed to cast their vote despite arriving at election offices well before 5 p.m.

Videos on social media went viral showing at least one instance of police officers designating an end of mail-in ballot application lines early on Tuesday.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance appealed to voters on social media early Thursday morning, asking them to send him instances of people telling them to get out of line at election sites, reposting debunked claims of voter suppression at the hands of Democratic “operatives”.

“This is illegal, and @JoshShapiroPA should do something about operatives in his own party depriving people of their right to vote,” Vance wrote.

A senior official for the Harris campaign addressed the issue in Bucks County in a call with reporters on Thursday, urging people to look at the facts.

“A handful of people were allegedly turned away from early voting lines in Bucks County. The county responded by agreeing in court to additional days, not just hours, of early voting,” the senior official said.

“That is the system working, just as it should,” she added.

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