Here's How Fast You Can Expect The Vote To Be Counted In Bucks Co

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Election workers in Bucks County are preparing for a vote unlike any other on Tuesday.

Due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic — which is seeing a fall surge of case numbers in Pennsylvania — a record number of Bucks County voters had already voted by Monday, using mail-in and absentee ballots in the presidential election.

While that might mean smaller numbers lined up at the polls on Tuesday, it presents a massive task for workers who have been prevented by state law from even opening the envelopes in which the ballots were received.

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To help give Bucks County residents an idea of what to expect in terms of election results, Patch reached out to county officials Monday. County spokesman Larry King provided a rundown of how vote counting in Bucks County will work.

Who's Already Voted

As of Sunday night, about 30 percent of Bucks County's 490,010 registered voters already had submitted mail-in or absentee ballots.

It's worth noting that an overwhelming number of those ballots were cast by registered Democrats. They'd returned 89,632 ballots as of Sunday night, compared to 37,534 Republicans and about 7,500 people registered to no party, as independents and the like.

That could create a situation in which votes cast at the polls Tuesday, which will be quicker and easier to count, could trend more Republican while the mail-in votes, many of which may be counted later, could skew heavily Democratic.

During this year's presidential campaign, Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden has urged caution during the coronavirus outbreak and encouraged supporters to vote remotely if possible, while Republican President Donald Trump has downplayed the dangers of the virus and done more in-person campaigning.

Counting The Votes

Under Pennsylvania law, election workers are allowed to start processing the mail-in ballots at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Local officials, including the entire Bucks County Board of Commissioners, had petitioned the legislature to let them start that process sooner, but leaders in the House and Senate did not act on those requests.

King said Bucks County Board of Elections officials expect workers to spend until at least early afternoon opening envelops and preparing ballots to be scanned. That won't be all of the votes, he said, but will provide "a decent supply of ballots to keep our high-speed scanners busy."

Scanning those ballots is expected to start at about 1 or 2 p.m., while other workers continue opening envelopes.

Announcing Results

When polls close at 8 p.m., Bucks County can start tabulating results of the voting that happens Tuesday at polling places. The mail-in and absentee ballots that already have been scanned by then also will be counted.

Bucks County plans to post its first set of partial results to the public at about 10 p.m. After that, King said, they likely will update those numbers every 90 minutes or so.

Recently, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie said it could be Friday, before all of the county's votes are counted.

For full coverage of the election in Pennsylvania, go here.