PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 17: A voter casts her early voting ballot at the A. B. Day School polling location on October 17, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With the election only a little more than two weeks away, a new form of in-person early voting by using mail ballots, has enabled millions of voters to already cast their ballots. President Donald Trump won the battleground state of Pennsylvania by only 44,000 votes in 2016, the first Republican to do so since President George Bush in 1988. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
Voters elsewhere in the state who have already registered to vote by mail in the November election should begin receiving their mail ballots early in October.
While most counties in Pennsylvania likely won’t begin sending out mail-in ballots to voters until next week, mail-in ballots are already available to registered voters in Montgomery and Wyoming counties, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Voters in those counties who have already registered to vote by mail in the November election can track the status of their ballots and request to cast their ballot in person at their county election office.
Voters elsewhere in the state can check here to see when mail ballots are available in their county.
Following some confusion over a state law requiring counties to begin processing voters’ applications for mail ballots 50 days before an election, state officials announced last week that counties were still in the process of preparing mail ballots for voters.
“It could very well be till the first week of October until ballots start going out to those voters,” said Lisa Schaefer, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania does not have an early voting system where voters can cast ballots at the polls before Election Day like some other states. In the commonwealth, registered voters can apply for their mail ballot in person at their local county elections office and submit their mail ballot in one visit, but they can’t go vote at a polling place prior to Election Day.
“Pennsylvania has mail-in ballots, and every eligible voter can get one of those as soon as those ballots are available,” Schaefer said. “Voters should not be concerned that they are not able to get those yet.”
The deadline for counties to receive a completed mail-in ballot is when polls close, by law, at 8 p.m. on Election Day. The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is Oct. 29, one week before the Nov. 5 election.
Are you ready to vote? Make sure to check your voter registration status, see who’s on your ballot, and make a voting plan here.
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