PA Vote Count Could 'Plunge Nation Into Political Crisis': Report

PENNSYLVANIA — The presidential vote count in Pennsylvania, a key state both candidates see as critical to their path to the White House, could "plunge the nation into a historic political crisis," Reuters said in a special report that describes a series of troubling scenarios that could follow the Nov. 3 election.

The report, published Friday, explores the many ways that counting the ballots in the battleground state of Pennsylvania could devolve into chaos, lawsuits and civil unrest.

Elections officials in Pennsylvania are bracing for a massive influx of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic. The expanded voting options were made possible following election law reforms signed in 2019 by Gov. Tom Wolf.

Campaigns have plotted strategies to oversee the counting of those votes by assembling armies of lawyers, volunteers and voter-protection directors, the report said.

According to the Reuters report:

"Two senior Trump campaign officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the campaign plans to field thousands of volunteers across Pennsylvania between now and Election Day on Nov. 3 to monitor ballot drop boxes, precincts and mobile voting centers. The unprecedented effort, they said, is necessitated by the sudden popularity of the new mail-in voting system and its potential to enable fraud."

In response, the Biden campaign told Reuters it will deploy the party’s biggest-ever "voter protection" team across the state.

Already this week, the Trump campaign came under fire from Pennsylvania's attorney general for filming voters dropping off ballots in Philadelphia.

It's not just the sheer volume of mail-in ballots that could complicate the Pennsylvania count, or the fact that it is likely to be one of the most critical states for a victorious candidate to carry. Other factors could muddle the tally and lay the groundwork for it to be contested.

First is the well-publicized issue of "naked ballots" — those mailed in without the second secrecy envelope over the ballot that covers the identity of the voter. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled ballots sent in without the secrecy envelope must be discarded.

Experts expect that as many as 40,000 ballots in Philadelphia alone and 100,000 across the state could be discounted because of the court's ruling on the secrecy envelope.

The issue has caused great concern among local leaders, given that Pennsylvania could very well be the decisive factor in the race and a focus of the nation in the days following the election. The ruling sets the state up "to be the subject of significant post-election legal controversy, the likes of which we have not seen since Florida in 2000," Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa M. Deeley wrote in a letter to state legislators.

Plus, there's the issue of when ballots can be counted.

In Pennsylvania, mail-in ballots received up to three days after the election can be counted. That rule was cemented after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the state high court's September decision.

Ballots received as late as Friday can be counted, but they must be postmarked by Election Day, which is Nov. 3.

You can read the full Reuters report here.

See Patch's full coverage of the election in Pennsylvania.

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