By Christina Kristofic and Ian Karbal of Pennsylvania Capital-Star, and Tom Sofield of NewHopeFreePress.com
The chairman of the Republican National Committee said at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Allentown on Tuesday that the Trump campaign intends to file a lawsuit against Bucks County for turning away voters who had lined up to apply for mail ballots on demand.
“Folks, here’s what’s happening: Democrat election officials are seeing our numbers. They’re seeing our turnout. They are seeing us breaking early vote records across Pennsylvania. They are terrified. And they want to stop our momentum,” RNC Chairperson Michael Whatley said. “We are not going to let them suppress our votes. We are going to fight.”
Whately told voters to stay in line at about 7:30 p.m. — two-and-a-half hours after the state deadline to accept mail ballot applications.
“Donald Trump needs your votes. Donald Trump needs Pennsylvania. And America needs Pennsylvania,” Whatley said.
Bucks County spokesperson James O’Malley said officials had been notified of the campaign’s intent to sue, and had no comment Tuesday..
County officials have said several times over the last few days that the election offices are not polling places and on-demand printing of mail ballots is not early voting. Pennsylvania law does not allow early voting.
Misleading videos, conspiracy theories, confusion on both sides of the aisle about the difference between on-demand mail ballots and early voting, and unclear direction from state election officials created chaos in the last days Pennsylvania voters had to apply for mail ballots. Though officials said anyone who was in line to apply for a ballot by 5 p.m. on Tuesday was able to submit their application.
On Tuesday, voters lined up at local election offices across Pennsylvania to apply to get mail ballots on demand before the 5 p.m. deadline. Many voters didn’t realize that they were in line to apply for a mail ballot; they thought they were in line to vote like they would on Election Day.
The process of getting a mail ballot on demand has each voter submit a mail ballot application and receive a ballot on the same day. It can take 10 minutes or more per voter. The voter can then fill the ballot out and turn it in on the spot, or they can take the ballot home and return it another day before Election Day. Most voters chose to fill out their ballots on the spot.
The result was long lines. And in places like Doylestown, in Bucks County, county security guards had to divide the line around 2:45 p.m. County officials said there were some early miscommunications, but everyone should have been able to submit a mail ballot application. People who arrived after the cut off wouldn’t get their ballots that day.
Videos of guards placing signs to divide these lines or telling voters they would not be able to cast ballots, quickly circulated on social media, with many saying they showed voters being denied entrance to the offices altogether. Some posts containing the videos had more than a million views and garnered responses from Elon Musk and right-wing influencers. Whatley appeared to cite these when he announced his intent to sue.
“Contrary to what is being depicted on social media, if you are in line by 5 p.m. for an on-demand mail-in ballot application, you will have the opportunity to submit your application for a mail-in ballot,” the Bucks County officials said in a post on their government Facebook page. “We are aware that, due to a miscommunication, individuals in line to apply for an on-demand mail-in ballot were briefly told they could not be accommodated. In fact, these voters were given the opportunity to submit mail-in ballot applications today.”
The crowds, however, were not entirely unexpected. Last Friday, the Department of State emailed county election officials, urging them to prepare for a crush of voters applying for mail ballots and requesting on-demand ballots before the deadline.
The email tasked boards of election with “ensuring that every voter who is in line by 5:00 PM is provided with an opportunity to request and submit a ballot” on the last day to do so. “This uniquely busy election cycle may require you to consider logistical challenges that you previously didn’t need to consider,” the email said.
On Tuesday, Schmidt assured Pennsylvania voters in a virtual press conference that “if you’re in line today and that 5 p.m. deadline is approaching, counties must give you the opportunity to apply for your mail ballot.”
But issues with on-demand ballots slowing lines had already begun.
On Saturday, some Bucks County voters who lined up to get ballots on demand were turned away before the election office closed because lines had gotten too long.
State Sen. Frank Farry (R-Bucks) said reports from constituents that day led him to publish a memo announcing his intent to sponsor legislation that would require county election officials to serve anyone in line by the posted closing time.
“There’s these long lines because the process is obviously cumbersome and it’s not the way the system’s set up, quite frankly,” Farry said.
Farry described the proposed legislation as something of a stopgap in the absence of more comprehensive legislation to reform early voting.
There’s no chance of Farry’s bill being taken up before the election because there simply aren’t enough session days scheduled for it to make it through both chambers, something he’s aware of.
“I’m sure after this election, maybe everybody can sit down and reflect on the ways we could do some of this better,” Farry said.
For the last two years, with Democrats in control of the House and Republicans in control of the Senate, getting consensus on any legislation has been difficult. State House Democrats have proposed a series of election reform measures that would have allowed for pre-canvassing of mail votes and expanded options for early in-person voting, though the latter would not have been able to take effect until 2027. Senate Republicans, however, said they would not back any major changes to election law unless they included more stringent voter identification requirements, which Democrats largely oppose.
A bill to allow pre-canvassing actually passed the House this year, but was not taken up by the Senate.
“I urge you, please, please be patient with county election officials today,” Schmidt said at Tuesday’s press conference. “They’re all working diligently to make sure every registered voter who wants to vote by mail ballot on demand can do so.”
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.
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