Mail ballots are now available in approximately 50 counties, giving Pennsylvania voters the opportunity to cast their vote early through the mail, in person at their county election office, or via drop box or satellite election office if available in their area.
Incumbent Republican Tim DeFoor faces a reelection challenge from Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta for the office in charge of policing the state and local agencies that receive and spend taxpayers’ money.
The reversal of a previous decision not to deploy drop boxes came after the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the Luzerne County Board of Elections and Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo.
The court rejected a request by voting rights and left-leaning groups to stop counties from throwing out mail-in ballots that lack a handwritten date or have an incorrect date on the return envelope. It also rejected a challenge by Republican political organizations to county election officials letting voters remedy disqualifying mail-in ballot mistakes.
Election officials in the NEPA county estimate they now spend about 40% of their time on security and working with local law enforcement and emergency managers on election plans.
Baseless claims of election fraud by Donald Trump put Pennsylvania in the spotlight during the 2020 election. Before more ‘big lies’ materialize this campaign season, learn about the measures state officials take to protect democracy on Election Day.
Mail ballots are now available in 22 counties, giving Pennsylvania voters the opportunity to cast their vote early through the mail, in person at their county election office, or via drop box if available in their area.
In Pennsylvania, similar to most states, military voters and certain overseas civilian voters can also vote absentee in state and local elections.
The lawsuit accuses County Manager Romilda Crocamo of violating state election law and it claims her policy will "lead to irreparable harm to the voting rights" in Luzerne County.
Mail-in ballots are now available to voters in 17 Pennsylvania counties. Officials said that ballots should be available statewide sometime during the first week of October.
