PENNSYLVANIA, USA — We’re just hours away from polls opening across Pennsylvania.
“All the volunteers that come out to the polls to run a smooth election, they’re ready to go," said Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D'Agostino.
But, a surprise weekend request from the Pennsylvania Department of State may cause counties to have a bit of a slow down when it comes to counting mail-in ballots.
The state sent out a survey Saturday, asking each county to provide a party-by-party count of undated and incorrectly dated mail ballots.
The request comes after a state Supreme Court ruled those ballots must be set aside but not counted.
“There’s no systematic way for the Department to obtain data for undated and incorrectly dated ballots," explained Acting Secretary of State, Leigh M. Chapman. "Our SHURE system was not built for that, it didn’t anticipate that when we were building it.”
In a Monday news conference, the Department of State would not say how many counties have responded to that request.
D’Agostino said the extra work could impact how quickly results are tallied.
“It’s going to slow the process up, we now have to check two different date ranges…that’s going to slow things up, how much? We don’t know," said D'Agostino.
If you plan to vote with a mail-in ballot, but haven’t sent it in yet, do not put it in the mail.
You should hand-deliver your ballot to your county election office or drop box by 8 p.m. on Election Day to ensure your vote is counted.
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