Election coordinator Charlene Maloney processes a mail-in ballot at the Bucks County Board of Elections office prior to the primary election, Wednesday, May 27, 2020 in Doylestown.
Matt Slocum / AP Photo
Vote counting enters 4th day, with many ballots waiting
-
The Associated Press
Matt Slocum / AP Photo
Election coordinator Charlene Maloney processes a mail-in ballot at the Bucks County Board of Elections office prior to the primary election, Wednesday, May 27, 2020 in Doylestown.
(Harrisburg) — Primary contests across Pennsylvania remained without a clear victor for a fourth straight day on Friday, as counties continued to tabulate an avalanche of mailed-in ballots under the debut of the state’s new vote-by-mail law.
In Philadelphia alone, election workers had processed roughly 14,000 returned ballots and still had about 140,000 to go, a city elections board spokesman said.
The Associated Press has not yet called a number of races where the contest was close or had a large number of votes yet to be counted, or both.
Those races included several where incumbent state lawmakers trail and the only competitive primary among the statewide races, a six-way Democratic primary contest for auditor general.
It also included a Democratic primary for the nomination to challenge four-term Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry in the Harrisburg-based 10th District.
More than 1.8 million voters applied for a mail-in or absentee ballot, smashing expectations by state officials and drawing warnings that many contest results would take days to produce. Voters returned about 1.4 million of them, or more than 75%, according to information from the state’s elections office.
Turnout passed 1.9 million, or more than 22% of Pennsylvania’s 8.6 million registered voters. Meanwhile, deadlines to accept mailed ballots were extended into next week in Philadelphia and six counties.
The Purple Buck Newsletter
Get insights into WITF’s newsroom and an invitation to join in the pursuit of trustworthy journalism.
