PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Update, 9:33 a.m. (Nov. 5): Governor Tom Wolf issued a statement Thursday morning re-affirming his commitment to counting every vote in the 2020 election and condemned all efforts to stop the vote count before all of the votes have been counted.
"Pennsylvania is going to count every vote and no amount of intimidation will stopour dedicated election officials in our municipalities," he said. "As a country and a commonwealth we must reject efforts to intimidate election workers and prevent votes from being counted. The planned attacks on our elections this morning are undemocratic and all elected officials must denounce them. Pennsylvania will be prepared to protect our election workers and our votes."
Previous Coverage
Gov. Tom Wolf and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar on Wednesday called for patience as the commonwealth's votes are counted and promised to fight any attempts from outside the state to interfere with the election.
“Pennsylvania will have a fair election,” Wolf said in a news conference at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex Wednesday morning.
He was joined by Boockvar, who provided insight into Pennsylvania's efforts to count all the outstanding mail-in and absentee ballots.
The presidential race between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden is still undecided, which is one of the reasons why the eyes of the nation are on the Keystone State as it finishes its vote count.
But Pennsylvania's decision to greatly expand mail-in voting for the first time this year means it could be days before it's clear whether Trump repeated his crucial Pennsylvania victory from four years ago, according to the Associated Press.
As of 8:07 a.m. an estimated 1.4 million mail-in or absentee ballots had not yet been counted, according to numbers provided by the House Democratic Caucus.
By the time the press conference began at 10:30 a.m., Boockvar said half of the total number of mail-in ballots had been counted.
That number was at 52 percent by noon, according to the Department of State's Supplemental Results Dashboard.
You can track the number of mail-in ballots that have been cast and counted here.
Trump holds an advantage of more than 500,000 votes over Bide in Pennsylvania, but more than two-thirds of the mail-in ballots across the state were cast by Democrats, according to numbers provided by the state.
Wolf vowed that every vote will be counted.
"The promise of democracy is that every vote counts, and that has been the promise of democracy since 1787," he said. "And it's still the promise of democracy. And I intend, here in Pennsylvania, to make sure we keep that promise."
Wolf said Pennsylvania might not have results by the end of the day on Wednesday, but the important thing is that the vote count is complete and accurate -- even if it takes longer than we're used to.
"The delay we're seeing is a sign the system is working," he said. "This is a new system, that went into effect with Act 77 last year. And there are millions of mail in ballots that are being counted."
The Wolf administration said it will provide an update on Pennsylvania's mail-in ballot results Wednesday at 6:15 p.m., FOX43's Samantha Galvez reported.
Election Day brought some voting-related legal action, and more may be on the way, the AP reports.
Republicans and a voter outside Philadelphia filed a federal lawsuit accusing Montgomery County officials of illegally processing mail-in ballots before Tuesday for the purpose of allowing voters to fix problems with their ballots.
A federal judge in Philadelphia set a hearing for Wednesday morning on the Republican bid to stop the count of 49 ballots that were amended and returned in the suburban county.
The state’s high court has not prohibited counties from allowing voters to fix their ballots, said Kelly Cofrancisco, a county spokesperson.
And in a lawsuit filed Tuesday night in a statewide appellate court, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and five other plaintiffs asked to block counties from allowing voters whose mail-in ballots were disqualified to be able to cast a vote by provisional ballot.
The lawsuit said the state Supreme Court has already ruled that state law provides no such avenue for a voter to fix a disqualified vote. In Oct. 21 guidance to counties, state elections officials said a voter whose mail-in or absentee ballot was rejected could still vote in person by a provisional ballot.
Boockvar insisted that the practice singled out by the lawsuit is legal. Regardless, she said there aren’t “overwhelming” numbers of voters who cast a provisional ballot after their mail-in ballot was disqualified, but she did not give an exact figure.
You can watch the governor answer questions at his press conference below:
