'A really destructive scenario': Pennsylvania braces for upheaval in presidential vote count

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Pennsylvania, one of the states most likely to decide the presidential election, is bracing for one of the slowest ballot counts in the country.

The coronavirus pandemic has driven a record 2.6 million Pennsylvanians to request mail-in ballots. But state law bars the processing of those ballots until the morning of the Nov. 3 election. Before the counting can start, a cumbersome procedure is required to confirm each voter's eligibility and extract every ballot from two envelopes.

If the race tightens — Pennsylvania polls now give Democrat Joe Biden an edge over President Trump — the final result could be unknown for days, with a court fight over uncounted ballots all but certain. Trump won the state four years ago by a margin of less than 1%.

Election experts fret that Trump's baseless allegations of rampant voter fraud could sow chaos.

Nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania's mail-in ballot requests have come from Democrats, so Biden is all but sure to gain ground on Trump as the count continues in the days after Nov. 3. The counties coping with the biggest numbers of mail-in ballots are the most populous — the ones where Biden will run up his strongest vote margins.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-really-destructive-scenario-pennsylvania-braces-for-upheaval-in-presidential-vote-count/ar-BB1a0NCh?li=BBnb7Kz

[Budi]

1. The screeching of Voter Fraud will find its way to the SC where Barrett will cast a predicted vote

That's why they need her TODAY!
Bush/Gore set the precedent for the final Vote to be stripped from the people.

How do you think Putin keeps winning. He too will be President for life.

[beachbumbob]

9. that was 6 or 7 weeks after the election, that will NOT be the case this time as SC

has NO standing in duration set by state law to count votes and certify

[Budi]

14. You are correct. But I put nothing in the 'for certain' column with these crooks.

They have till Jan 20 to manipulate anything.
And with Barrett they will be fast tracking every dirty desire the Federalists hold dear.

Whether they succeed with it all is another story.

Ugh.

[beachbumbob]

16. I am more concern about russia attacking our systems Nov 2nd

and that has little chance of occurring. This is a landslide election. The networks will declare the presumptive winner 1 minute after polls close in California

[Budi]

20. Yup. That too. My god if we make it thru all the deadly obstacles they'll throw in our path to Nov 3

..and then crawl thru the nuke field on our bellies for the final journey to Jan 20, We Will Be OK.!

No shit that's what it feels like.
This final journey is the shortest but the most deadly to our survival.

I'm sure I've seen this scene near the end of a movie before.
I think there were casualties but they made it & began the slow rebuild.

Cripe.

[beachbumbob]

21. we will see bloodspilled, on NOv 3rdfor sure, not too sure if after unless its militia blood and the

101st airborne. The defeat of trump and GOP will be massive and OBVIOUS by the time the polls close Nov 3rd

[Budi]

23. I agree. Hope all our voters just shelter at home. Stay off the streets, no protests

No 'We Won' parades.

Let the 101st handle it if it must be.
Trump & FOX will be enraged like a nuke bomb when the election goes to Biden.

They aren't going quietly. That we know.

[beachbumbob]

24. There are safe areas to do so but why risk it? Let the american nazis learn what real Antifa is

[Budi]

25. 👍💙

Boy. Deep beeath..&..hang on.

[Grins]

2. So does Florida.

And I’m guessing a whole bunch of other states, too.

There is no requirement that the counting end on Election Day, so sit back and enjoy watching Republicans setting themselves on fire for doing what they aided and abetted.

[Loki Liesmith]

3. Florida will count these ballots quickly.

[rso]

5. Florida

Actually, Florida has had universal mail in voting for a long time. We should have results by 11 PM EST. If Donnie loses Florida, he’s finished.

[IBEWVET]

22. Not universal

You have to request a ballot

[LisaL]

18. Absolutely not.

Florida starts counting before the election.

[EndlessWire]

4. Yeah

That's exactly why he started the brouhaha about the mail in ballots. First, he didn't want them, then he did, now, I am not sure where we are in Donnie Two Scoops' personal preferences for voting. Whatever serves his purposes...

[Bettie]

6. PA, AL, WI, and MS

are the only states that don't start processing before election day.

Hopefully, without WI and PA the winner will be clear and it won't be Trump.

[northoftheborder]

7. Texas doesn't open mailed ballots until election day

[Bettie]

8. NYT Article says otherwise

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/13/us/politics/when-votes-counted.html

According to what I read, they pre-process starting on October 22nd.

[northoftheborder]

10. I asked when my vote would be counted when I turned in my ballot at the county office...

...and was told Nov 3rd. Perhaps they remove the envelopes earlier.

[Bettie]

12. That is what I took it to mean

are they optical scan ballots? Those go through machines pretty fast.

ETA: The four states referenced before don't do ANYTHING with the ballots before election day, not even open the envelopes.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Texas May Be Like Here In Illinois

The votes are counted starting October 22. But, the vote totals are not tallied until election day.
That's just a matter of someone in each county uploading the numbers to the master tally sheet for the state.
They're not counting on election day. Merely making the number official.

[SharonClark]

15. That's similar to Iowa where they can open

the outer envelope on the Saturday before Election
Day but can’t run them through the counting machine until the morning of Election Day.

[Grins]

28. Yes. But pre-processing is not counting

[Bettie]

29. But, it takes a lot of the time-consuming part of it out

of the equation.

If they are optical scan, feeding them through the machine is not a multi-day process.

[LisaL]

19. Texas won't have as many, since they don't allow no excuse mail in voting.

NT

[beachbumbob]

17. we will see that Biden is declared the winner a minute after California polls close on Nov 3rd

even for russians its hard to manipulate an obvious landslide that is building

[DeminPennswoods]

11. FTR, in Philadelphia county

the plan is to count mailed in ballots 24/7, in shifts, until the counting is done.

In the June Dem primary, it only took a day for Nina Ahmed to overcome the lead of Micheal Lamb for Auditor Genl based on a count of absentee ballots from Philadelphia.

[Retrograde]

26. CA has a 30 day counting period

built into the process and has had this for a while.

[RobinA]

27. This Is Why

I am thinking, as a PA resident, that I'll go to the polls. Not that my vote will make a difference in timing, but I just don't like this late counting BS. I want my vote safely in by election day and counted timely.