In Bucks, 63,000 Have Asked To Vote By Mail

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — More than 63,000 Bucks County voters have asked to continue voting by mail, a number that has officials hoping they'll have some leeway with how ballots are counted in November's presidential election.

On Friday, Bucks County Clerk Gail Humphrey said that, of the roughly 100,000 Bucks County voters who requested mail-in ballots for the primary election on June 2, 63,603 asked to become permanent mail-in voters.

In all, about 78,000 people sent ballots in by mail for the primaries, which came as Bucks election officials, like their counterparts across Pennsylvania, were called upon to hold an election during the coronavirus outbreak.

The deluge of voting by mail caused official Bucks County results to be delayed by the better part of a week. Cognizant of Pennsylvania's role as a swing state in the presidential race, local officials are pushing for ways to make the count quicker in November — when they expect the number of votes by mail to far outnumber June's tally.

Humphrey pointed to a handful of proposals currently before lawmakers in Harrisburg.

"I don't think it's going to happen shortly, (but) there may be some changes that come about by the fall," Humphrey said. "We're very hopeful."

Like other Pennsylvania counties, Bucks was flooded with mail-in ballot requests for the primary due to concerns about the coronavirus. By law, election workers were not allowed to begin counting those ballots until polls closed on election night.

In comparison to the more than 78,000 mail votes, Bucks County received about 6,000 ballots by mail in the last presidential primary in 2016.

County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo was one of five members of a Bucks County task force that studied vote-counting issues and made recommendations to state lawmakers.

"They are aware up in Harrisburg of what changes we'd like to see," said DiGirolamo, who served as a state representative before joining the commission.

He said action on one of several bills before the legislature could happen by the end of July or early August.

Among the proposals lawmakers will consider include allowing election workers to start counting mail-in ballots early on Election Day.

Potentially complicating matters is the fact that President Donald Trump has sued Pennsylvania to block voting by mail in the state. Trump claims that widely allowing mail voting opens the door to voter fraud, while supporters call the lawsuit an effort to suppress the vote in a key battleground state.