Legislation Would Give PA Counties More Time To Count Votes

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-10) has introduced legislation that would give counties more time to count mail-in ballots in future elections.

The bill would permit county boards of elections to begin pre-canvassing mail-in ballots beginning 21 days before Election Day.

"If we want a timely counting of ballots on Election Day, we must allow election officials to begin handling the influx of mail-in ballots sooner,” Sen. Santarsiero said.

In 2019, the state's General Assembly passed Act 77 updating Pennsylvania's election code to allow for voting by mail. The election code was then amended in April 2020 to allow counties to begin pre-canvassing ballots, but not tally the results, beginning at 7 a.m. on Election Day.

Pennsylvania's vote count took longer than most states in the 2020 election in large part due to the restrictions on opening mail-in ballots prior to Election Day, according to analysis by the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Associated Press.

Santarsiero's legislation would allow counties to begin pre-canvassing three weeks early.

“The change to the Election Code in 2020 was a good start, but as we saw from how long it took to count all the ballots, it just doesn’t go far enough to provide counties with the time they need to process these ballots,” Santarsiero said. “Allowing for a 21 day pre-canvass will ease the burden on our county election administrators, which is something other states with mail-in ballot programs have been doing successfully for many years.”

Last week, Sen. Santarsiero announced he would be introducing the Safe Drop Act, which would make it easier to vote by requiring counties have 1 ballot drop box location for every 20,000 voters.

More than 2.6 million Pennsylvanians voted using a mail-in ballot in the 2020 election, according to data provided by the Pennsylvania Secretary of State's office.

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