One day after election security became a topic of Tuesday's Presidential debate, Pennsylvania's Secretary of State weighed in on the issue tackling multiple topics including questions over mail-in ballots.
Kathy Boockvar said the total approved mail-in and absentee applications statewide currently stands at 2.3 million. She stressed, the process for sorting through those applications and sending them out is secure.
To apply for a mail-in ballot, she said "I have to give either my drivers license or my social security last four digits. And, before I ever get a ballot they’re going to check me against either that PennDOT database or social security database and against the voter record."
She added, the process for mail-in voting is the same as absentee voting, which has existed for decades. She said counties also double check information again once the ballot is received. She said drop boxes must also be secure.
"Counties have to have secure processes. They have to have chain of custody procedures to make sure the boxes themselves are very secure," said Boockvar.
For mail-in ballots to be counted, the ballots must be postmarked by November 3rd and it must arrive to be counted by November 6th. Mail-in ballots must also be sealed inside the secrecy envelope or else the ballot will not be counted.
She reminds voters there are three ways to vote this election: 1) in person at the polls 2) by mail-in/absentee ballot 3) vote in person early at the county office.
Boockvar said total voter registrations in the state stand at more than 8 million people. More than 4 million of that 8 million are registered as Democrats. More than 3 million are registered as Republicans. Over 860,000 people are registered as independents.
Boockvar said with many people already registered for mail-in ballots for the primary, many voters will also receive their ballots earlier as they are already registered in the county systems. However, she recognized counting the large amount of mail-in ballots will take time and therefore she urged lawmakers to consider passing pre-canvassing legislation that will assist counties.
"The thing that we hope more than anything else is that they pass a law allowing counties to start pre-canvassing the ballots before 7 am on election day," she said as she called it an 'obvious win' for voters, candidates, the state and the nation. She added, "it’s common sense to allow the counties to precanvass earlier and it will allow for a prompt counting and recording of the vote."