PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania's top voting official warned that next month's election results might take several days to finalize. However, she wants to reassure voters that the delay is part of the process and not a sign of problems.
Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Leigh Chapman has clearly been concerned that Pennsylvania's vote-counting rules could be exploited by people who want to sow doubt in the results.
"Getting the truth to the public about how Pennsylvania’s elections are administered is the best way to debunk current myths and disinformation," she said.
At a virtual briefing last week, Chapman stressed that the state law that created mail-in voting prohibits counties from opening those ballots until Election Day and from counting them until the polls close. Since more than a million voters so far have asked for mail-in ballots, she said results may not be in on election night.
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"This delay does not mean anything nefarious is happening," said Chapman. "It simply means the process is working the way it's designed to work in Pennsylvania and that election officials are doing their job to count every vote."
Chapman noted every county has been ordered to do a risk-limiting audit of the results — which she called the gold standard of election audits.
She also urged voters to report any attempts to intimidate them at a mail-in ballot drop box, just as they would at a polling place. This came after she sent letters of concern to Berks and Lehigh counties, where voters reported being questioned — in some cases by law enforcement — as they dropped off their ballots.
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