Pennsylvania Alerts Voters: Don’t Expect Election Night Results Right Away

The state of Pennsylvania is already prepared to be counting ballots for days, following Election Day this November.

They have issued a statement to warn voters that the results of the 2024 Election may not be available that same night.

Since Pennsylvania is one of the key battleground states that could decide the final results of the Election, this means we, again, might not know the winner on Election Night.

But, don’t worry, Pennsylvania wants to assure us that this is not due to any election rigging or ballot fraud…

So, just sit tight.

I’m sure we can trust them. Right?

Here’s the official announcement:

Pennsylvanians won’t always know the final results of all races on election night. Any changes in results that occur as counties continue to count ballots are not evidence that an election is “rigged.” See the full explanation at https://t.co/viVtWSw4HL. pic.twitter.com/gbaDh8lJpX

— PA Department of State (@PAStateDept) August 8, 2024

So, why is Pennsylvania warning about this exactly?

Well, they’re saying it’s because Pennsylvania is one of the states that doesn’t allow for “pre-canvassing” of mail-in ballots.

Essentially, this means that mail-in ballots cannot be opened until the morning of Election Day.

Now, Pennsylvania had 4 years to pass legislation to change this rule. But, they did nothing.

Here’s how The Washington Post explained this:

When the polls closed on election night in 2020, President Donald Trump appeared to be winning Pennsylvania. But over the next several days, as officials counted mail-in ballots, his lead shrunk and then disappeared. By Saturday, Joe Biden was the clear winner of Pennsylvania — and with it, the presidency.

The protracted counting process left a days-long vacuum that Trump filled with demands to stop counting the ballots while he was still ahead, declaring victory in Pennsylvania and building the false narrative that the mail-in votes were fraudulent. It became a core part of the false narrative that helped propel Trump’s “Stop the Steal” crusade and spurred election denialism among his allies and supporters that has continued to this day.

The delay was caused by a quirk of Pennsylvania’s election law, which forbids the opening of mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. on the day of the election. The narrow Election Day vote margins in 2020 coupled with the unprecedented number of people voting by mail because of the pandemic created a massive backlog and left election officials racing to finish the count.

Pennsylvania, one of the most hotly contested battleground states, is one of only seven states, including another battleground, Wisconsin, that doesn’t allow pre-canvassing — the act of opening and processing mail ballots ahead of Election Day. In 2020, 27 states allowed pre-canvassing. Since then, 16 more states have passed laws permitting it.

But not Pennsylvania. Despite widespread calls for change, Pennsylvania is likely to again take several days to announce this year’s winner, alarming state election officials who worry the delay will cause confusion, deteriorate trust in the process and make election workers targets for harassment.

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“If the electoral college comes down to Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, we might still face a long period where we don’t know the winner,” said Rachel Orey, an elections expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Pennsylvania state lawmakers had four years to change the law and allow pre-canvassing, but the legislative session ended this month without them doing so. The Democratic-led Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill in May that would have allowed county officials to begin pre-canvassing mail ballots seven days before Election Day, as was recommended by a bipartisan panel. But the Republican-controlled State Senate never brought it for a vote, with some Republicans arguing that the change wasn’t needed or that it should include other changes to election laws.

“It’s reprehensible that they didn’t get it done,” said Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat who was Pennsylvania’s secretary of state during the 2020 election. “This is not rocket science. The reality is that not passing this bill will mean that ballots will take longer to count, which means it will be longer until we have the results of the election.”

State Rep. Scott Conklin, a Democrat who sponsored the pre-canvassing bill, said that when he asked county commissioners across the state to name one wish for administering elections, the answer was resoundingly to allow them to start processing mail ballots early.

Conklin said refusal to do so could once again allow election deniers to baselessly claim that the mail ballots counted after Election Day are fraudulent. Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Trump and his allies began to cast doubts on the integrity of mail ballots and urged his supporters to vote in person, creating what became known as the “red mirage.”

Initially leading, Trump declared victory in Pennsylvania the day after the election, less than 24 hours after polls had closed. His campaign sued to stop the count even though nearly 1 million mail ballots statewide had not yet been tallied. Then–Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and other Trump backers alleged widespread fraud in the mail ballots without evidence.

“This is a perfect case of where the elected officials are purposely causing a delay, causing an atmosphere of conspiracy and doing it on the backs of good citizens who trust them,” Conklin said, referring to the Republican legislators who blocked the legislation.

The Post Millennial has more information:

The Pennsylvania Department of State has announced that the results of the state’s upcoming election will not be known on election night.

In a social media post, the department ,“Pennsylvanians won’t always know the final results of all races on election night. Any changes in results that occur as countries continue to count ballots are not evidence that an election is ‘rigged.’” The post also included a link to a website dedicated to fact-checking claims about Pennsylvania’s election process.

The announcement echoes the situation from the 2020 election when initial results appeared to favor President Donald Trump as polls closed. However, as mail-in ballots were counted in the following days, Joe Biden was declared the winner in Pennsylvania. The prolonged counting process has frustrated some critics who argue that state election results should be finalized and made public on or immediately following November 5.

Despite calls for reform, Pennsylvania lawmakers did not pass legislation that would allow pre-canvassing of ballots, which could speed up the counting process. The legislative session ended without any changes to the law despite the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passing an initiative in May, according to The Washington Post.

As one of the key battleground states in the upcoming election, Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes could be crucial in determining the next president. If the race comes down to Pennsylvania, it may take several days before the American public knows the final outcome of the election.

It’s almost like Pennsylvania wants to keep things murky and confusing…

It would be easy to change the laws to allow for a safe and speedy election process.

They just don’t want to do this.

So, I have to ask: what’s really going on here?

Are we expected to just accept that it now takes days or weeks to count election ballots as the new norm?

Do they expect us to buy a repeat of 2020, where Trump led Pennsylvania by a big lead until early the next morning, when Biden miraculously pulled ahead?

George has the right idea:

The Washington Post is now reporting that election results in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will again take days to count, just like in the stolen 2020 election

I need everyone to pay attention; they are setting us up for a massive steal using fictitious ballots. You have countries… pic.twitter.com/uLiC0wc95e

— George (@BehizyTweets) July 28, 2024

Never forget this:

PENNSYLVANIA election night, Nov 3, 2020, Trump led Biden by over 600,000 votes, up by 11 points.

By 5:00 am, Biden magically gained apprx 681,000 “winning” 3,458,229 to Trumps 3,377,674.

IMPOSSIBLE! pic.twitter.com/IMM2Z60COr

— 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) July 19, 2023