Pennsylvania's Absentee Ballot Rules Mean Many Arrive Late
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Comparatively tight deadlines for absentee ballots mean Pennsylvania's mail-in votes arrive too late to be counted far more often than the national average.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that 4.2% of Pennsylvania's absentee ballots got to voting offices after the deadline to be counted in the November 2018 election, compared with less than 1% nationally.
The newspaper cites data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission that ranks Pennsylvania second in the rate of missed-deadline rejections, behind only Delaware.
Pennsylvania's voters submitted 187,000 absentee ballots in last year's General Election and 8,700 were rejected, the great majority for missing a deadline.
The Inquirer says the commission figures apparently undercounted the number of Pennsylvania late ballots by at least 1,400.
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