7,000 Provisional Ballots To Be Counted In Bucks County

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — After more than a week of counting, Bucks County elections officials started the day Thursday with thousands more provisional ballots to consider.

In the county, about 7,000 provisional ballots were cast, according to county spokesman Larry King. King said the Board of Elections began the process this week, but has not yet finished.

County offices were closed Wednesday for Veterans Day. Election workers are investigating the circumstances in which all the provisional ballots were cast before making suggestions to the elections board.

According to Board of Elections Director Tom Freitag, most of the provisional ballots cast in Bucks County were cast by voters who had requested mail-in ballots, but weren't sure if those ballots would arrive at county offices in time to be counted.

Voters who requested mail ballots, then showed up at the polls on Election Day, were able to cast a provisional ballot and have their mail-in ballot canceled. Poll workers were working to confirm that had happened before the provisional votes are officially tallied.

Provisional ballots are votes cast when election officials need more time to determine whether a voter is eligible. Examples of when they can be cast include when a voter shows up at the wrong polling place, forgets a required photo ID or their name can't be found in poll books.

State law requires county boards of election to judge each provisional ballot and decide within seven days of an election whether they meet the standards for counting.

As of Wednesday afternoon, President-elect Joe Biden's lead in Pennsylvania had grown to about 50,000 votes over President Donald Trump.

There were about 50,000 mail-in ballots that remained to be counted, many of them from Democratic strongholds such as Allegheny and Philadelphia counties.