Mail ballots in Pennsylvania were counted much faster in this year’s election than in 2020
By 3 a.m. Wednesday, 54 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties had counted 90% or more of their mail ballots, according to data released by the state. By roughly 5 p.m., 97% of the state’s mail ballots had been counted.
In 2020, mail ballot counting went on for several days, preventing media organizations from declaring a winner in the state until the Saturday after the election. That year, the state had roughly 700,000 mail ballots or 35% more than this year. In the years since 2020, counties have grown more experienced with handling large volumes of mail ballots, and have purchased better, faster equipment, which in combination has enabled counties to process ballots more efficiently
That combination “has a big impact,” said Al Schmidt, Secretary of the Commonwealth. “It’s still a big lift, and I think that’s something that’s not considered when people shrug off the idea of more ballot pre-canvassing.”
Counties are still not allowed to pre-canvass, or begin preparing ballots for counting, before Election Day.
Relatively small numbers of ballots, such as military and overseas votes and ballots cast provisionally in person on Election Day, are still waiting to be counted in some places.
In 2020, Philadelphia had counted approximately 300,000 mail ballots by late evening on the Thursday after the election, according to reporting at the time. But this year, the city was well ahead of that pace, having counted 165,000 ballots by midnight on Election Day.
The story was the same in other counties….