Nov 3, 2020 6 min read

Polls are open today across Pennsylvania from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and much has been made of the 2.4 million mail-in ballots that had been returned as of Monday morning.

During the novel coronavirus pandemic, the word “unprecedented” is often used.

But the same could be said of 20 years ago, when the nation was watching results in the presidential contest between Democratic Vice President Al Gore Jr. and the Republican governor of Texas, George W. Bush.

Television networks announced Floridians had gone for Gore, then said the outcome in the state was too close to call.

As the world faced uncertainty about who the 43rd president of the United States would be, news coverage brought to the fore the butterfly ballot, the hanging chad, the dimpled chad and the pregnant chad as punch cards were examined in Florida.

Gore, who won the popular vote nationally, was three electoral votes shy of a victory, and Bush needed 24 to make it to the required 270. Florida had 25 electoral votes.

The United States Supreme Court weighed in on Dec. 12, 2000, in Bush vs. Gore, stopping the count in Florida that had Bush ahead by 537 votes out of nearly 6 million cast.

Locally, many close elections have happened since, three of them involving former state Rep. Rick Saccone, a Republican, and all coming down to absentee, military and overseas civilian ballots counted days afterward.

Two of Saccone’s close contests occurred in 2010 and 2012 when he held a slight edge over incumbent, and then challenger, David Levdansky. Saccone prevailed each year.

Worldwide coverage accompanied a special election in March 2018 to discover if President Donald Trump’s support would help boost Saccone over political neophyte Conor Lamb in the vacant 18th Congressional District seat.

Saccone conceded a week after the special election, but a concession statement is a courtesy, not a legal requirement.

Later in 2018, Democrat Steve Toprani trailed Republican State Rep. Bud Cook by just 12 votes as citizens of the 49th Legislative District were contemplating their preparations for Thanksgiving dinner.

They were out likely shopping for Christmas presents when a Washington County judge put the case to rest when he ruled against Toprani’s court challenge.

“Elections are never finished on election night, and certainly we’ve never had 2.5 million mail ballots to count before,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar in a Zoom news conference Monday morning with the media.

Trump, who is running against former vice president Joe Biden, said in North Carolina, “We’re going to go in the night of, as soon as that election is over (in Pennsylvania), we’re going in with our lawyers…. If people wanted to get their ballots in, they should have gotten their ballots in long before that.”

Boockvar noted overseas civilians and members of the military have for years been given under Pennsylvania law a week after Election Day to get their ballots in and be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. To do so otherwise would “disenfranchise those who are serving our country,” she said.

Citing potential delays in the postal system, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in September that mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day must be counted if they arrive in county elections offices by Friday, Nov. 6. The United State Supreme Court let that ruling stand, but allowed that it may revisit the case after the election.

With this in mind, the Department of State has told counties to segregate late-arriving ballots with Nov. 3 postmarks. When counted, they should be kept separate. But she also encouraged voters who still have mail-in ballots to turn them in before 8 p.m. today, either by dropping them off at the elections office in their county of residence or by taking them to a polling location.

In case of a legal challenge by the Trump campaign, Boockvar said Pennsylvania has “excellent lawyers looking at legal claims that can be filed,” and her Deputy Secretary Jonathan Marks added, “There are recount procedures, but that doesn’t stop the count.”

Pennsylvania law calls for the results of the Nov. 3 election to be certified by Monday, Nov. 23. Until then, all numbers are labeled “unofficial.”

There are other circumstances that are worth noting.

If, on Election Day, half of the voting machines in a precinct are not functioning, a voter can request an emergency paper ballot.

“You should never have somebody say, ‘Come back later,’ if the machines are down,” Boockvar said. “You don’t have to come back later.”

A voter who did not mail or drop off a mail-in or absentee ballot can take it to the assigned precinct, surrender it, and cast a vote on a machine.

Anyone who requested a mail-in ballot but did not receive it can go to a polling place and cast a provisional ballot. The same goes for someone who was issued a mail-in ballot but does not take it to the poll.

Another special circumstance deals with those who are in quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19.

Washington County Commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan, who also chairs the county election board, noted that someone who was planning to vote in person but is quarantining can request an emergency absentee ballot from his or her county elections office.

A quarantined voter can assign a designee to deliver ballots, and if the voter can’t find a designee, the law requires the county election office to have a sheriff’s deputy or a county official deliver balloting materials to the voter, according to a news release Boockvar issued.

In addition to the presidential race, Washington, Greene and Fayette countians, plus part of Westmoreland County, will be seeing the 14th Congressional District contest between incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler and Democrat Bill Marx.

Voters will also decide statewide row offices: attorney general, auditor general, and treasurer; and state representative races in all legislative districts across the commonwealth.

State senators in odd-numbered districts are on the ballot this year, and in Washington County, the sole race of this nature is between incumbent Democratic State Sen. Pam Iovino and Republican challenger Devlin Robinson. The 37th State Senatorial District includes Peters Township in Washington County, plus the South Hills and airport areas of Allegheny County.