Election security

 

Why counting votes in Pennsylvania is taking so long

The world’s attention has turned to a set of swing states still counting important mail-in votes, particularly Pennsylvania. So what exactly is happening today? How are counts happening? Is the election fair and secure?

“I urge everyone to remain patient,” Pennsylvania secretary of state Kathy Boockvar said in a press conference today, “We are going to accurately count every single ballot.” 

“The vote count, as I’ve said many times, is never done on the day of election night. The counties are doing this accurately as quickly as they possibly can.”

Across the state, mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day are still arriving—don’t forget there have been significant postal delays—and so counting continues. The Republican state legislature declined to change Pennsylvania law, which meant that processing of over 2.5 million mail-in votes could not begin until Tuesday morning. Other states started the process much earlier.

“The practical labor associated with mail-in ballots has more steps than in-person voting,” says Eddie Perez, a Texas-based election administration expert with the nonpartisan OSET Institute. But, he adds, “Both in human and technology features, there’s a lot of safeguards for mail-in ballots.”

Here’s a concise but thorough rundown of the counting, security, and integrity process right now in Pennsylvania:

• Ballots and envelopes were sent out only to registered and verified voters who requested them.
• Election officials receive the ballot and envelope within three days of Election Day—although this deadline may be challenged by Republicans.
• Officials verify that each ballot is associated with the exact eligible voter on the rolls.
• Ballots are validated with voter records in exactly the same way as in-person votes.....