Bucks County Board of Elections Addresses Late Voting Results

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Bucks County Board of Elections held a meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 9, to address multiple questions and clarifications pertaining to the Nov. 2 election, the final results of which are still pending in the county. Final election results may still be unavailable for the next 48 hours in Bucks County, as officials pointed to numerous factors for the ongoing delay.

"There are some races we know which hang in the balance," said Commissioner Vice Chair Robert Harvie Jr. Multiple races in Bucks County are currently divided by a handful of votes, making the updates presented during the meeting very pertinent to the overall race in the county.

"I'll say up front, and I know my fellow two board member here agree, that until we get some kind of relief from the state in terms of being able to pre-canvas, we can expect this to be sort of an ongoing issue where you're not really going to know on Election Night, or even a couple hours afterward, what the results are," Harvie Jr. said.

Commission Gene DiGirolamo discussed his hopes that a bill being voted on in Harrisburg that will give the county seven days to pre-canvas in order to make getting results in a timely manner more easy. He voiced his hope that it would see bipartisan support.

Harvie Jr. moved onto the topic of ballots that were segregated during the recent election. Solicitor Tom Freitag discussed the current situation regarding ballots that failed to meet standards for being accepted for one reason or another.

"During the pre-canvas and canvas, we identified 56 ballots that were missing a signature," Freitag said. Election code requires the voters sign their ballot for it to be counted; Freitag suggested the 56 ballots be discarded for this reason.

There were also incidences of ballots not having the correct date written on them, with some containing the writer's birthday instead of the date of the signing. Others had incorrect years. Freitag recommended having the 10 ballots with dates out of range be counted, but the 126 undated and unsigned not be counted.

The Board found 272 ballots that did not have a secrecy envelope and were not accepted.

The county saw 25 unsealed, or 'partially naked', envelopes containing ballots. The board recommended counting those ones. 24 ballots with identifying marks will not be counted.

The county also saw six separate multi-ballot dropbox incidences, where one person brings multiple ballots to one box, usually on the behalf of others. Ballots in boxes that saw this happen were removed and place into a secure ballot bag, which was then sealed and the ballot box was brought back out for voters. Each incident was reported to the District Attorney's office. No criminal intent has been reported about these incidences thus far. The board suggested counting the 1,149 ballots in these boxes as valid.

There were also 9 ballots not properly dropped off, with instances of people dropping them in non-election boxes or at the front of libraries. Freitag recommend not counting these ballots.

In total, 352 people had their ballots not counted due to improper sealing and other issues.

Deputy Solicitor Amy Fitzpatrick pointed out that the Board of Elections saw a drop of voters not dating their ballots correctly from .07% last year to .02% this year, a slight improvement of public understanding of using their mail-in ballots correctly, which the Board attributes to public education on the matter. Freitag attributes clearer directions on the ballots as a reason for the decrease in these instances of confusion.

The recommendations were into two motions, one to count and not count the previously mentioned votes, and another to keep these rules for future votes. Both were voted on unanimously.

The Board also addressed a total of 770 voters who applied for an absentee ballot, did not receive it, and voted provisionally. 22 ballots were listened as 'name not on list', though all 22 were found to be in the correct voting area. 16 in Bristol Township had to vote provisionally due to voting machine mistakes. 31 were partially counted for various reasons. Freitag recommended counting these ballots.

An additional 91 with an incomplete affidavit, 15 unregistered, and 12 others were recommended not to be counted. All recommendations were moved.