Improvements to Pennsylvania’s election process might help results come a little quicker

Since the last presidential election in 2020, Pennsylvania counties have added new equipment and hired more staff to make the process of vote counting go smoother and, hopefully, a little quicker.

One of the top questions many ask concerning Election Day is when will we know the results?

It won’t be on election night, according to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt.

“Counting millions of ballots takes time,” Schmidt said Thursday during a daily election briefing.  “Predicting exactly when Pennsylvania will have unofficial results that show a clear winner is just not possible and never has been. Pennsylvania has never had final results on election night.”

In fact, during the last presidential election in 2020, as of midnight on Election Day only 54% of total votes cast were reported, according to the Associated Press.

One reason the commonwealth doesn’t have results the night of is because state law does not allow for the pre-canvassing—the opening and counting of mail in ballots—prior to Election Day, Schmidt said. Counties can start the lengthy process of pre-canvassing at 7 a.m. on Election Day, the same time polls open for in-person voting.

To pre-canvas mail ballots, election officials must review the outer declaration envelope to make sure it is signed and dated properly, Schmidt said. The envelope is then opened and the secrecy envelope is removed and opened. Officials remove the ballot and flatten it before tabulating the votes.

“It’s a lengthy assembly line,” Schmidt said. “Counting votes itself does not take much time. It’s everything leading up to that that takes the most time and that can’t begin in Pennsylvania until 7 a.m. on Election Day. All of that is time consuming work.”

But Schmidt pointed to some changes that have been made since the 2020 presidential election that might make results come out a little faster.

First, counties have had access to $45 million in election integrity grant funding every year since 2022. Schmidt said some counties have used the money to purchase equipment to expedite mail ballot envelope opening and sorting. Other counties have used the money to hire more people to open and process more ballots. 

Second, there are less mail ballots to count this year than in 2020, Schmidt said. The 2020 presidential election was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and about 40% of Pennsylvanians (2.7 million voters) voted by the then-newly available no-excuse mail ballot voting method. This year, only 2.2 million mail ballots were requested.

Plus, Schmidt emphasized, county officials have more experience handling and processing mail ballots.

“Now, county officials have handled eight elections with large numbers of mail-in ballots,” Schmidt said. “This election there is new equipment, more people, more experience, and fewer votes to count.”

Schmidt said another difference from 2020 is that counties are required to report by midnight on election night the remaining number of ballots that have to be counted. Residents can track races, from the contest for the White House to state legislative races on the state’s election results site.

“You’ll be able to see how many they have counted and how many they have left to count,” Schmidt said. “In 2020, there was no mechanism to report the universe of mail ballots that still needed to be counted.”

Because of this, Schmidt said, false accusations of “found” ballots ran rampant on social media during the critical time between the polls closing and the release of the unofficial results, misinformation that was amplified on social media by then President Trump and many of his surrogates.

Schmidt said Pennsylvania’s elections are secure and officials are working hard throughout the state to ensure the integrity of the results.

As for election results, patience will be key. 

“The people doing the hard work administering this election are truly making democracy work,” Schmidt said. “They deserve our thanks, our respect, and our patience.”