Montco To Process Ballots Early, But Don't Expect Results Tuesday

NORRISTOWN, PA — The first results of the 2020 election for Montgomery County will be available by 8:30 p.m. election night, but don't expect final results in the county on Tuesday.

Mail-in ballots will begin to be processed in Montgomery County, and nearly every county across Pennsylvania, at 7 a.m. Tuesday. This processing includes everything except actually counting the ballots. Then, once polls close at 8 p.m., the formal counting process of the mail-ins can legally begin. Counting will continue "24 hours a day" until all votes have been recorded in Montgomery County and across the country.

“Our goal is to provide updated election returns in as close to real time as we can,” said Ken Lawrence Jr., the chair of the Montgomery County Board of Elections. "Once we begin counting, we’re not going to stop counting until we’re done.”

Elections officials in Montgomery County will be working overtime Tuesday to handle the historic number of mail-ins. The county's Voter Services Office has tripled in size to handle the increased load, as well as purchased numerous new counting machines.

A total of 278,712 mail-in ballot applications had been approved in the county as of Oct. 31, the day for which the most recent data is available. Of those, the county has already received back 209,834.

Results from in-person precincts in Montgomery County will start trickling in around 9 p.m. Tuesday. Those totals should be made publicly available by 1 a.m. Wednesday.

There are more than 500,000 registered voters in Montgomery County, meaning that even if final voter turnout is very high, a huge percentage of all votes in the county will be mail-ins.

“Given that approximately 45 percent of Montgomery County registered voters have requested to vote by mail, we anticipate a much lower number of voters at our polling places compared with a typical presidential election," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said.

With the potential for days of uncertainty looming, leaders in the county and around the country are calling for patience. "On Tuesday night and the day that follows, I encourage all of us to take a deep breath and just stay calm," Gov. Tom Wolf said last week.

The revelation that final results will not be known election night in Pennsylvania is not new. Wolf said as much last week, adding that he believed results would be available within a few days.

The only thing that could render this moot is a landslide victory by either presidential candidate, where results in other states make Pennsylvania's electoral votes meaningless, or where one of the candidates has such a large lead in Pennsylvania that Montgomery County's final numbers do no matter. Both scenarios appear increasingly unlikely heading into Election Day, with the gap in the polls between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump narrowing and both candidates expending significant campaign resources in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Even in the case of a landslide in the presidential race, there are still numerous state Legislature and state Senate races, as well as races for U.S. Congress, that will be decided Tuesday in Montgomery County.

There are a few counties that do not plan to begin counting until Wednesday, despite Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar urging all to begin as early as possible at 7 a.m. Up to five counties, including Cumberland, Franklin and Juniata, claimed that they did not have the resources necessary to begin counting mail-in ballots on Tuesday, potentially delaying final results.