HARRISBURG, Pa. — Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar reported that today’s presidential election in Pennsylvania saw no widespread significant problems amid high turnout at the polls and more than 2.5 million mail ballots cast.
“We all know that the numbers of COVID-19 are increasing. We all know that there are high tensions, a lot of stress, tremendous amounts of disinformation. That’s got to be incredibly confusing, not to mention record number of lawsuits, and yet we have over 2.5 million Pennsylvanians who have already voted,” said Secretary Kathy Boockvar.
Voter registration exceeded 9 million by the deadline to register to vote in today’s election. More than 2.5 million mail ballots were cast, up from about 1.5 million in the primary. This is the first general election in Pennsylvania where voters could vote by mail ballot without having to provide an excuse. The Department of State will have an unofficial estimate of turnout at the polls in a few days.
“County election officials, poll workers and voters efficiently and peacefully carried out today’s election amid the biggest reforms to voting in the commonwealth in 80 years,” Secretary Boockvar said. “They embraced the new mail-in ballot option and safely voted at the polls.”
The Department of State’s election response team responded to and monitored issues reported throughout the day, including late-opening polling places, which happens in every election, lines at the polls, and some confusion over the use of provisional ballots, which were used in higher numbers today because some voters who applied for mail ballots chose to vote at the polls instead. A few counties ran low on provisional ballots or regular ballots but were able to replenish their supply.
By the time polls closed at 8 p.m., Department of State staff and volunteers from other state agencies had answered more than 5,000 calls received via the commonwealth’s voter help line (1-877-VOTESPA).
Secretary Boockvar predicted that the overwhelming majority of ballots will be counted within a few days. She addressed the seven counties who do not plan to tabulate mail ballots until after Tuesday.
“Those seven counties waiting to count represent a tiny fraction of the overall 2.5 million ballots cast. So I just want to be clear, those seven counties waiting until tomorrow they still are largely going to be done before some of the larger counties,” added Secretary Boockvar. “It’s not going to impact the overall timeframe at all for the presidential race.
The Department of State provides election returns showing votes cast by mail and in person as counts are received from each county. Additionally, the new dashboard at votesPA.com/Counting provides the numbers of mail and absentee ballots cast, counted, and remaining to be counted in each county; the in-person precincts counted; and provisional ballot counts, once those begin to be counted.
You can find more information about election results on the FOX43 2020 Election Guide.