HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania counties ground through ballot counting Tuesday a week after voting concluded in a high-turnout election that tested a new vote-by-mail law and led some Republicans to doubt its results.
Preliminary counts that were due at the close of business Tuesday from counties to the Department of State do not have to be complete but will be watched for how they might affect the presidential race numbers.
They also may lead voters to ask officials to recount the tallies in their local precincts.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden currently holds a 46,000-vote margin, too wide a gap for Republican President Donald Trump to qualify for a mandatory recount.
No state or county election official has reported fraud or any other problem with the accuracy of the count. Still, the Trump campaign has signaled its hopes that litigation may reverse what currently appears likely -- that Biden’s supporters will cast the state’s 20 electoral votes in his favor next month.
The Associated Press called the presidential contest for Biden on Saturday after determining the remaining ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania would not allow Trump to catch up.
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But Trump has refused to concede, and his campaign sued in federal court over Pennsylvania’s presidential election, arguing that registered Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republicans.
Pennsylvania’s voting rules provide several avenues to challenge results, none of them simple, and the short time frames involved require motivated supporters, clockwork organization and ample funding.
Voters who believe their local precinct should be recounted can now contact their county election boards in groups of at least three, producing affidavits that allege fraud or error. County election boards must resolve such claims before they issue certified counts, due Nov. 23.
There are about 9,100 precincts across the state.
Once a county declares it has finished its count — a date that will vary — a five-day period starts, during which groups of at least three voters in a precinct can assert claims of fraud or error before their county's common pleas court. In each precinct, that requires the three voters put up $50 each.
The county judge would oversee any such recount.
A wider challenge that would seek to have the statewide results thrown out on grounds that the election was somehow illegal would have to be filed by Nov. 23 in state Commonwealth Court.
At least 100 voters would have to sign on, including five who have signed affidavits about why they think the election was illegal, or that there was something wrong with the voting or counting.
That process requires a bond to be posted. When Green Party candidate Jill Stein went that route four years ago, the bond was set at $1 million. She subsequently withdrew her challenge.
Military and overseas ballots are not due until Wednesday, and there may be more developments in the litigation over ballots that arrived after the close of business on Nov. 3 — Election Day — but before 5 p.m. the following Friday.
After Nov. 23, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar must tabulate, compute and canvass votes for all races, with no specific deadline. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf will in turn certify the winning presidential candidate's slate of Electoral College electors and send it to the national archivist. Four years ago, both actions occurred on the same day in mid-December.
Those electors will contribute their votes to the Electoral College during a Dec. 14 session in the Capitol in Harrisburg. Congress is set to validate their choice Jan. 6.
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