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Here’s how Pennsylvania counties are responsible for certifying the upcoming election

By Sean Kitchen

November 4, 2024

County governments will play an important role in certifying Pennsylvania’s upcoming election. Here’s a look at their deadlines and any possible issues they may encounter. 

Voting in the Nov. 5th election is only one part of the process.

Behind the scenes, county and state officials have a series of deadlines and hurdles over the next several days and weeks to certify the election and welcome a new president.

The first major hurdle counties are faced with is counting, or canvassing, all of their mail-in ballots. 

Close to 2 million people, which is down from 3 million people in 2020, voted by mail in this election, and larger counties like Philadelphia will need more time to count their mail-in ballots

Counties are not allowed to start opening their ballots and preparing them to be counted until 7 a.m. on Election Day, and cannot start counting them until the polls close at 8 p.m.

Republicans during the Donald Trump years have used the days it takes to count all the ballots to sow doubt in the integrity of the election. But it was Pennsylvania Republicans themselves who refused to pass pre-canvassing legislation prior to the 2020 and 2024 elections that could have sped up the process, so it still may take a few days for voters to know who won the election. 

Then, Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have until 5 p.m. on Nov. 12 to deliver their unofficial returns to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, who then tallies the unofficial results and presents them to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office. 

County election offices then continue the counting process and their results are considered unofficial for 5 days. Recount petitions and local challenges to the election results are allowed to be filed at this time. 

Counties then have until Nov. 25th to file their official results after they made any possible revisions to their previous count. 

If a county or official refuses to certify their election results, members of the public, the Secretary of Commonwealth or any affected candidates can ask state courts to order those officials to perform their duties that are required by law.

The courts have the power to hold any local officials in contempt of court for refusing to comply with an order to certify the results.

According to Informing Democracy, an organization designed to highlight the vote counting and election certification processes in states around the country, potential vulnerabilities to the upcoming election may happen during the counting process. 

The organization warns about the Commonwealth’s decentralized process, which could potentially enable counties to refuse to certify and create chaos by missing the required deadlines. 

Another potential issue that could create problems is the use of the state’s recount petitions. The state allows for any three voters to file a recount petition in the Court of Common Pleas after the Nov. 12 canvassing deadline.

Votebeat reported that following the 2022 election there were more than 100 recount petitions delaying the certification process until after Dec. 22.  

If there are hundreds or thousands of recount petitions, advocates are worried the state could miss the Dec. 11 deadline for Shapiro to certify Pennsylvania’s slate of electors. 




Author

  • Sean Kitchen

    Sean Kitchen is the Keystone’s political correspondent, based in Harrisburg. Sean is originally from Philadelphia and spent five years working as a writer and researcher for Pennsylvania Spotlight.

CATEGORIES: Election 2024

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