Why Pennsylvania’s unusual voting laws make it ripe for rigged election claims
With Pennsylvania expected to be a close and crucial state in the 2024 race for the presidency, it's unusual election laws are again under the microscope.
With Pennsylvania expected to be a close and crucial state in the 2024 race for the presidency, it's unusual election laws are again under the microscope.
First, there's the counting. The state doesn’t have early voting — instead offering the time-consuming and paperwork heavy option of on-demand mail balloting. It also doesn’t process its mail ballots ahead of Election Day.
So, in the hours after polls close on Election Day, when many battleground states will be reporting their early, mail and Election Day totals, Pennsylvania will be counting ballots around the clock in a mad dash to catch up.
Then there's the "fixing" or "curing" of ballots with minor errors, such as a mail-in ballot mixing a signature. If a ballot has errors, each county in the state decides on its own whether it will let voters "fix" them, creating significant differences in voting policy throughout the state. (Most states have a statewide policy for curing ballots.)
And finally, after the ballots are counted, there can be challenges. Pennsylvania laws give residents a spate of ways to challenge and delay certification of the results with recounts, appeals, and litigation.
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