PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- Pennsylvania election officials are reminding everyone that it will take longer this year than before to count the millions of mail-in ballots, so we may not know winners and losers for days.
Gov. Tom Wolf says the priority is to make sure every vote is counted.
“On Tuesday night and the days that follow, I encourage all of us to take a deep breath and just stay calm," he said.
“One of the groups this is gonna affect most is the prognosticators who are used to basically getting things done right after the polls close. Ain’t gonna happen this time.”
Pennsylvania processed more than 3.1 million applications for mail-in ballots, and county elections offices can’t start opening the millions of returned ballot envelopes until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar says even though many counties, including the larger ones, will be counting around the clock until they wrap up, it could still take until Friday.
“What’s most important -- I know we all share this -- is that every ballot is counted accurately. And then accurately as quickly as humanly possible," she said.
Starting on Election Day, she says, the state's website will not only show how many votes have been counted, but how many ballots they still have to count, broken down by county.
“It’s going to be a lot of information constantly updated throughout whatever period of time that it takes
Boockvar says counties have 20 days to certify election results, and they’ve never been certified on Election Day. She also notes overseas and military ballots aren’t due back until next Tuesday.