AP:

Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican state lawmakers remained at odds Thursday over how to update Pennsylvania’s voting laws to handle an expected avalanche of mail-in ballots in November’s presidential election in the battleground state, even as Philadelphia moved ahead with an ambitious election plan.

Wolf, a Democrat, laid down several markers for what he is seeking, following a June 2 primary election that saw thousands of mailed-in ballots arrive after the Election Day-deadline and counting in some areas drag on for days, if not more than a week.

With partisans suing to win favorable court-ordered changes, Wolf and Republicans who control the Legislature are clashing over how to prevent vast numbers of ballots from being discarded and how to head off the specter of a presidential election result hanging in limbo on a drawn-out vote count in Pennsylvania.

In part, Wolf called for lawmakers to allow counties to begin processing mail-in ballots three weeks before the election and to require them to count ballots that arrive up to three days after the Nov. 3 election, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day….

Republicans, for now, oppose counting mail-in ballots that arrive after the election. To minimize late-arriving ballots, Senate Republicans are seeking to shorten the deadline to request a mail-in ballot, from one week to 15 days before the election. Democrats oppose that.

Instead of allowing ballot processing to start 21 days before the election, Senate Republicans support a three-day head start. House Republicans said they will take action on yet-to-be published legislation next week that bears similarities to a Senate GOP bill introduced Monday.

Without action, courts may settle some of these issues.