LANCASTER, Pa. — Polls are open across Pennsylvania and mail-in and absentee ballots are already being counted statewide.
Counties are allowed to start processing ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Lancaster County's Board of Elections provided an update on pre-canvassing operations at 10 a.m., saying that so far everything is going smoothly.
"I feel confident we'll be done tonight and will have all the results up tonight," said Christa Miller, the county's Director of Elections.
County commissioner Ray D'Agostino (R) said early turnout at the polls was reported to be "slow."
Both Miller and D'Agostino praised the hard work of the 30-plus volunteers working to pre-canvas ballots inside the county government building throughout Tuesday.
“They do basically a double check we haven’t missed any date or signature issues," Miller explained. "If we haven’t they open the group they have, they double check the secrecy envelopes, that there is a secrecy envelope. Obviously, we know a 'naked' ballot is a tragic flaw."
After removing any naked ballots, pre-canvassers will unfold each ballot, preparing them to be scanned.
Thanks to high-speed scanners, which the county received before last year's election, all 20,000 received mail-in and absentee ballots can be counted in just a few hours.
Tuesday’s primary marks the last opportunity for counties to sure up the pre-canvassing process before November’s presidential election.
In Lancaster, pre-canvassing takes place in a room on the first floor of the government building downtown. For Tuesday's primary, the county moved part of its pre-canvassing operations out into the hallway too.
“How much can we max that room out people wise to see 'Can we keep it here in the fall?' or 'Are we going to have to move it potentially because we need more room?' because we’re obviously going to have more mail-in ballots in the fall," said Miller.
She says she's expecting to see around an 80% turnout come November, which is about what the county saw during the last presidential election in 2020.
County officials announced they finished counting all the mail-in ballots just before 3 p.m. The county is expected to give another update at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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