Voters in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a key suburban area in the upcoming presidential election, faced a deadline of 5 p.m. on Friday to apply for a mail-in ballot. This deadline was set by a court in response to a lawsuit filed by the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the Republican National Committee, and GOP Senate candidate David McCormick. The lawsuit alleged that voters were being disenfranchised due to being turned away by county application-processing offices that had closed.
The confusion arose from the fact that unlike polling places on Election Day, the county elections offices are not official polls. Some voters were under the impression that they could cast a ballot if they were in line by the closing time, leading to long lines and frustration.
Pennsylvania does not offer true early in-person voting. Instead, voters can apply for mail-in ballots online or in-person at county election buildings. The process takes about 12 minutes, involving applying for a mail ballot, waiting for a bar-coded envelope to be printed, and then casting the ballot on the spot if desired. Alternatively, voters can use drop boxes or mailboxes to submit their mail-in ballots. It's important to note that ballots must be received by election offices by 8 p.m. on Tuesday; a postmark by that time is not considered sufficient.
No-excuse mail-in voting is a relatively new practice in Pennsylvania, with an expansion passed by the Legislature in 2019. In 2020, there were concerns raised by Trump about mail-in voting fraud, which initially discouraged many Republicans from using this method. However, this year has seen a shift, with both Trump and Elon Musk endorsing mail-in voting and encouraging supporters to vote early using this method.
Pennsylvania is a crucial battleground state in the upcoming election, with the most visits by both Trump and his opponent. The state narrowly went for Trump in 2016 but swung to Biden in 2020. Bucks County, specifically, voted for Hillary Clinton by a slim margin in 2016, which widened to a five-point lead for Biden in 2020.
