Pennsylvania’s Election Night Could Last Days Because of a Few Counties

A few Pennsylvania counties won’t start counting mail-in ballots until Nov. 4.

It’s getting more and more likely that the country will have to wait until after election night to find out who won Pennsylvania. 

Officials in several counties are planning to wait until Wednesday, Nov. 4, the day after the election, to start counting mail-in ballots.

More than 3 million Pennsylvanians applied for mail-in ballots—roughly a third of all registered voters in the state. As of Thursday, 2.1 million Pennsylvania voters have returned their ballots to their local elections office.

In the Keystone State, county election officials cannot open or count mail-in ballots until Election Day. Officials in most counties plan to begin counting mail-in votes as soon as they’re allowed on Tuesday morning. 

On Wednesday, officials in Cumberland County, in Central Pennsylvania, announced that they plan to wait until the day after Election Day to count mail-in ballots, so the county can “give equal weight to in-person and mail-in and absentee ballots.”

The move, they said, would allow them to “concentrate on the smooth operations of our polling places” on Election Day.

Officials in Erie County, where nearly 15% of voters have already voted, told CNN they won’t start counting absentee ballots until after they have finished counting in-person votes.  

Beaver County, just outside of Pittsburgh, will operate in a similar manner, according to WXPI.

Other counties are following suit.

At a press conference earlier this week, Gov. Tom Wolf accused Republican leaders in the state Legislature of walking away from a deal that would have allowed counties to start opening ballots earlier.

His ally, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, took to Twitter, lambasting efforts to delay vote-counting.