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EXPLAINER: How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Counting of mailed ballots in Pennsylvania is drawing renewed scrutiny amid a too-close-to-call U.S. Senate primary between Republicans…
HARRISBURG, Pa. Counting of mailed ballots in Pennsylvania is drawing renewed scrutiny amid a too-close-to-call U.S. Senate primary between Republicans David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Former President Donald Trump blasted the state’s elections procedures on social media Wednesday even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county. He has relentlessly criticized the state’s voting procedures since his loss in Pennsylvania two years ago, when it took several days to tally the results from all mailed ballots. The head of the state association of county commissioners, the local officials who oversee the nuts-and-bolts of Pennsylvania voting, described Tuesday’s primary as “a very smooth election day” but acknowledged that the state’s 2019 law expanding the use of mailed ballots could be improved. HOW THE STATE’S MAILED BALLOT SYSTEM WORKS
Until 2019, Pennsylvania allowed only limited voting using mailed ballots. Voters could receive an absentee ballot only if they could show a medical problem, planned travel or some other complication that would prevent them from voting in-person on Election Day. A legislative deal that year put an end to straight-ticket voting, a priority of Republicans, in exchange for allowing anyone to request a ballot in the mail, a change sought by Democrats. The mailed ballot expansion left in place the longstanding procedures for absentee ballots. But the pandemic brought much wider use of mailed ballots than anyone had anticipated, as voters sought alternatives to casting a ballot inside crowded precincts. The state Supreme Court in 2020 allowed more ballot collection boxes and extended the period when mailed ballots would be accepted to three days after the election as long as they were mailed by Election Day. Those changes, which were temporary, fueled Trump’s claim that mailed ballots provided an opening for widespread fraud, but there is no evidence that occurred. FAILURE TO AMEND EXISTING LAW
County officials throughout the state have been calling for changes to the 2019 law.

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