Results from the Nov. 8 midterm elections should be available on Election Day, county officials said Monday.
Jessica Garofolo, the administrative services director for Allegheny County, said at Monday’s elections board meeting that roughly 200 people will work at the centralized facility where all mail ballots are counted. Garofolo said she anticipates finishing the count of mail ballots “well before 8 p.m.”
More than 175,000 mail ballot requests have been submitted thus far in Allegheny County, making up about 14% of the nearly 1.3 million requests across Pennsylvania, with nearly 53% of mail ballots already completed and received by the county.
Pennsylvania’s marquee races this fall for governor and the U.S. Senate could have significant ramifications on a variety of issues.
Democrats hope to retain the governor’s mansion, as Attorney General Josh Shapiro faces off against state Sen. Doug Mastriano. And the U.S. Senate race, between Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republican celebrity physician Mehmet Oz, could determine which party controls the chamber.
In the leadup to the election, county officials are paying close attention to recent lawsuits related to mail voting.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court deadlocked in a 3-3 vote Friday, automatically affirming a lower court ruling that allowed counties to implement “cure” procedures for mail ballots. These procedures, which are set by individual counties, allow for a voter to be notified of technical mistakes with their ballot and given the opportunity to correct them so their ballot can count.
Allan Opsitnick, an assistant county solicitor, explained how the county would handle various situations if a voter made a technical mistake with their ballot.
If a ballot has no signature on the outer envelope, it is returned to the voter, along with a letter explaining that a signature is required. If a ballot arrives and is not contained within an inner secrecy envelope, known as a “naked” ballot, a letter is sent to the voter along with new secrecy and declaration envelopes.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up another mail voting case, with a ruling expected by many before Election Day. The case revolves around whether counties should tally mail ballots that arrive on time, but do not have a required handwritten date on the outer envelope.
Opsitnick said voters who return ballots with such an error are notified that their ballot may not count, depending on how the court ultimately rules, and they can go to the County Office Building with photo identification to be able to handwrite a date on their ballot.
The county plans to segregate such ballots that are not corrected, officials said, with their potential inclusion in the results dependent on how the court rules.
Officials also provided an update on staffing its 1,324 physical polling locations.
Garofolo said the county was aiming to have four workers per location, adding up to a workforce of 5,300 people. She said nearly 5,500 people have registered to work the polls, meaning that the county is “moving in the right direction” and “in a better spot than we typically are.”
Jon, a copy editor and reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and working as a co-editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Reach him at jmoss@unionprogress.com.
