PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania and Philadelphia officials had warned voters that results from Tuesday’s elections might take days to finalize. But in fact, the winners of the statewide races were declared within five hours of the polls closing, much faster than expected.
Election officials point to two key factors — the number of mail-in ballots and the margins of victory.
In 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, 2.6 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail, according to Department of State Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathan Marks.
“2020 is not a good gauge of anything,” he said. This time around, the number was less than half the 2020 total.
In Philadelphia, mail-in ballots went from nearly 400,000 in 2020 to 133,000 this year, as more than 70% of voters went to the polls on Election Day.
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“In-person votes get loaded into the system, and we know those numbers,” said City Commissioners Chair Lisa Deeley. She explained that mail-in ballots can slow down the count.
“We first-level review them, and then they have to go through an extractor machine,” she said. “Then they go through another extractor, and then they get put on a table where individuals unfold them and back-bend them.”
That’s called the pre-canvas and, under state law, it can’t start until Election Day — something election officials are lobbying to change.
But this year, it didn’t slow down the races being called because, Marks says, they weren’t close.
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“As smoothly as things went on Tuesday, if we had a really close election I think you and I would be having a much different conversation,” Marks said.
“(Senator-Elect John) Fetterman won by more than anyone predicted, and I guess statistical people figure out where votes are left and how those votes are trending. But we’re still here, counting votes,” said Deeley. “It’s just that people don’t care anymore because they got their answer.”
Marks also credits county election boards with improving counting operations, but notes counting is still going on. Some down-ballot races are still undecided, and the final count is days away.
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He said the pre-election cautions were given to quell potential claims that a slow count meant something was amiss.
“That note of caution was responsible, setting expectations realistically,” Marks said.
Marks’ concerns seem reasonable, given the false claims of election fraud after 2020, and the role of Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in stoking those claims.