Why Pennsylvania voters shouldn't expect to see final results on Election Night

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PHILADELPHIA - Voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania will be on the edge of their seats on Election Night, but officials say not to expect to see results right away.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt – a republican appointed by Josh Shapiro in 2023 – told FOX News a state law prohibits county boards of elections from beginning to process mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.

"The terminology is normally called pre-canvasing," Schmidt, a former Philadelphia city commissioner who clashed with Trump online after the 2020 election, explained to Fox News Digital. "Plenty of other states allow the county boards to begin that process in advance of Election Day, whether it's three days or seven days or however long. But in Pennsylvania, counties can only begin that process at 7 a.m. on election morning."

Pennsylvania is among seven states, including the fellow battleground of Wisconsin, where pre-canvassing is prohibited under state law.

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Before the coronavirus pandemic, mail-in balloting was scantly used and only granted under special circumstances like when a voter is sick or traveling around the time of the election. That changed when former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law a "historic election reform bill" known as Act 77, which allowed most voters to apply for a mail-in ballot and vote by mail without needing to provide a reason or excuse.

The pandemic saw a surge in mail-in votes, and in Pennsylvania's most recent gubernatorial election over 1M people voted by mail.

Shapiro’s administration announced in June that mail-in ballot applications would be available two months earlier than in 2020, allowing voters more than eight weeks of additional time to apply for their ballot.

For the commonwealth to begin processing mail-in ballots before 7 a.m. on Nov. 5, Schmidt said the state legislature would need to send pre-canvassing legislation to the governor's desk.

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Pennsylvania's House of Representatives passed a bill in May that would allow county election workers to begin processing ballots up to seven days before Election Day. The bill passed on party lines, 102-99, as Democrats backed it and Republicans opposed it, warning that it would open the door to fraud.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro backed the bill and urged the Republican-controlled state senate to pass it. County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania also supported the legislation, saying it would help them manage the workload and ensure quicker results.

"This simple change would significantly improve election administration without compromising ballot security," Lisa Schaefer, the association’s executive director, said in a statement.

Republicans have been hostile toward mail-in voting since Trump in early 2020 began baselessly smearing it as rife with fraud.

At least partly as a result, the majority of mail-in ballots — usually about 70% — are cast by registered Democrats in Pennsylvania and the majority of in-person voting on Election Day is done by registered Republicans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report