A clunky early voting option has buoyed Pennsylvania elections offices and frustrated voters

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – An inconvenient and time-consuming early voting option in the nation’s largest presidential battleground state creates frustration, leading to hours-long lines and claims of disenfranchisement as voters flood precinct offices unwilling to handle the influx.

The confusion is partly due to a Pennsylvania law passed just before the pandemic, and partly due to crowds Republican voters are listening to their party’s calls and former President Donald Trump to vote early. Trump’s pleas for his supporters to vote before the Nov. 5 election come after he repeatedly attacked forms of early voting in previous years.

In the Philadelphia suburb of Bucks County, often seen as a political bellwether, voters waited until three a.m. Tuesday, the last day to request a ballot.

Why the change from four years ago, when relatively few voters tried to request early ballots in person?

“Because he said we should vote early. I just tried to make it ‘too big to rig,’” said Marlene Burns, 52, repeating one of Trump’s standard lines encouraging his supporters to vote. “So yes, that’s why I vote in the courthouse and I wanted my vote in person.”

The fear of early voting is the last speck of dust to pass votes in Pennsylvaniawhich has, and is by far, the largest number of electoral votes of all the battleground states the most visited state by the Democratic and Republican presidential tickets this year. The run-up to Election Day in the state was marked by numerous fights over ballots, some of which ended up on Election Day. in front of the US Supreme Court.

A culprit in this latest controversy is a law that the Pennsylvania legislature, then controlled by Republicans, passed in 2019 in an effort to expand mail-in voting. They created an early voting system that was very different from those in most states, where registered voters can go to a voting center in their county and cast their ballot before Election Day.

Instead, in a practice known as “on-demand voting by mail,” Pennsylvania voters can come to their county government office, request a ballot and then fill out an application. That form must be reviewed to ensure the person is an eligible voter and then approved. Once that happens, a ballot must be printed.

It’s a process that, if all goes well, could take about twelve minutes per voter. Voters have the option to complete and return the ballot on-site, take it home or request that it be mailed to their home. If they don’t fill out the ballot right away, they can return it by mail or drop it in a mailbox.

County election officials say they need more money to hire staff to help with on-demand early voting as they try to handle the surge of voters. Compounding the problem, offices only have one printer designed specifically for early in-person ballots, including inner and outer envelopes.

The process and voter demand have put pressure on election officials and upset voters.

“It’s an uncertain process for a lot of people because it’s still relatively new, and it’s also quite inefficient,” Bob Harvie, chairman of the Bucks County Board of Elections, said in an interview. “Changes are definitely needed.”

In response to criticism and misinformation on social media, Bucks County government said any voter who was in line Tuesday at 5 p.m. would be allowed to request a mail-in ballot. The Secretary of State issued a statement confirming this and had this advice for voters: “Be patient.”

Other counties assured early voters they would have a chance to request their ballots before Tuesday evening’s deadline.

It’s a system that voters and officials are still becoming familiar with. The 2020 election was marked by a surge in mail-in ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 midterm elections did not see the kind of turnout typical of a presidential year.

Harvie said counties need money to help with early voting staff and equipment. He would also like to see a change in state law that would allow voters to check a box to automatically receive a ballot each year if they want, rather than being forced to request one at every election.

But Pennsylvania’s politically divided state government has been largely at an impasse since 2019 over modernizing election laws.

As the early voting period came to an end, Republican lawmakers said in a letter to Bucks County officials that they had fielded complaints from voters about the closure of the county office over the weekend while people were still waiting in line to request a ballot. to ask. In a statement on its website, Bucks County said it may need to stop accepting applicants “to ensure all applications are processed by the end of the day.”

Harvie acknowledged confusion about the state’s early voting system.

“If you’re told that, yes, you can go vote early by someone, and then you show up and you’re told, well, you can’t vote early — you know, voters aren’t sure who to believe ” he said.