![]() Unless you see the process of opening the ballot envelopes, prepping the ballots for tabulation and setting aside damaged ballots to be duplicated, “you don’t necessarily know that.”įor more than a year, county officials in Pennsylvania have asked state lawmakers to change the law so that they can start counting mail ballots three weeks before Election Day, rather than the current 7 a.m. “All of that takes a tremendous amount of time,” Forney said. Michele Forney, who works for the Elections Group, an organization with election administration expertise, said it would take a team of six people to open thousands of ballots a day when she was elections director in Pinal County, Arizona. Mail ballots take more time to process than in-person ballots because officials must open envelopes, flatten ballots, verify signatures and ensure that ballots aren’t torn or damaged so they can be scanned into tabulators. (Florida’s statewide races were called by media outlets quickly because they were settled by landslides, but some ballots were still being counted there days later.)īut other states, including Pennsylvania, lag behind by not allowing that process to begin until Election Day. Some states, including Arizona, Nevada and Florida, allow workers to process mail ballots weeks before Election Day. That gives the postal system plenty of time for delivery, said Tammy Patrick, a former Maricopa County elections official.īut there are close to 20 states that allow voters to request ballots during that time period, which delays the ballots from getting into election workers’ hands, said Patrick, who now works for the Democracy Fund.Īllow for earlier processing of mail ballots. Postal Service advises that ballots be mailed back one week before they are due. (AP)Īlign mail ballot request deadlines with postal standards. ![]() “That’s how Florida gets it done.”Īn election worker tabulates ballots at the Clark County Election Department on Nov. “The number one suggestion that I would make: Allow election officials to start the processing and canvassing of their ballots before Election Day,” said Ion Sancho, the former elections supervisor in Leon County, Florida. We asked that question of current and former elections officials and experts. What would it take to accelerate election results without significantly reducing voter access? But some states have laws that prevent them from getting to mail ballots sooner.Įfforts by election officials and the media to educate the public about the reasons for dayslong counts have not silenced the clamoring for faster results. Senate races that could determine the balance of power in Congress.Įlection officials say their top priority isn’t speed but accuracy they want to ensure all eligible ballots are counted by state deadlines for official results, often weeks after Election Day. The margins in prominent statewide races were too close to call in Nevada and Arizona - including U.S. Local election officials in some states were still counting ballots days after Nov. This question has been bouncing around the internet: If Florida can count ballots in a matter of hours, why does it take days for less populous states to do the same?
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