35K Ballots Still Need To Be Counted In Allegheny County

PITTSBURGH, PA - Allegheny County has about 35,000 mail-in and provisional ballots that won’t be counted until at least Friday, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Thursday.

Fitzgerald said at a news conference that the number includes 29,000 mail-in ballots that had to be re-sent to county residents last month because of a printing error. Those ballots can’t be counted until Friday because of a court order.

The uncounted ballots also include those with improper markings and so-called “naked ballots” that were submitted without a secrecy envelope. Those will be examined by the county elections board that can’t by law be sworn in until Friday.

“Our goal is to make sure every vote is counted,” Fitzgerald said. County workers, he pledged, “will do it as expeditiously as they can. They will work as fast and accurately as they can.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 348,000 mail-in votes from county residents had been counted, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State website.

As of 1:30 p.m., Allegheny County had the fourth-most uncounted ballots in the state behind Philadelphia County (104,607), Bucks County (45,558) and Chester County (41,817).

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Pennsylvania Election 2020