The Bucks County Board of Elections reported today that about 5,500 ballots remain outstanding from the Nov. 8 General Election.
Board of Elections staff finished tallying about 85,000 mail-in/absentee ballots and more than 225,000 in-person votes from more than 300 voting precincts by just after 4 a.m. Wednesday. Remaining ballots segregated as a result of one or more identifiable issues will be voted on by the Board of Elections.
Turnout is estimated at 65 percent, with mail-in and absentee votes returned at a rate of about 89 percent.
“On behalf of myself and my fellow Commissioners, I want to thank every member of our Board of Elections staff for their tireless and professional efforts, especially division leader and Deputy COO/Chief Clerk Gail Humphrey, Director of Elections Tom Freitag, and Assistant Director of Elections Kelly Gale,” said Commissioner Bob Harvie, who chairs both the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Elections.
“With the help of dozens of employees from numerous county departments, they worked nonstop from 7 a.m. Tuesday, all day and through the night to ensure a prompt and accurate vote count,” he said. “I’m proud to say we posted every election result we were able to here in Bucks County in record time since we started using mail-in voting.”
Unofficial election results can be viewed on the county website. The county does not anticipate significant changes to posted unofficial vote totals until at least next week.
Known outstanding ballots include approximately 1,735 segregated mail-in/absentee ballots and 3,171 provisional ballots received from polling places.
Segregated ballots include those with missing signatures, dates, secrecy envelopes and other issues.
Up to 653 overseas civilian, federal and military ballots also remain to be counted. Of those 420 had been returned by Thursday afternoon. To be counted, those ballots must be received by the Board of Elections by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15.
The Board of Elections is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday to discuss provisional and outstanding ballots.
“When it comes to elections, the eyes of Pennsylvania, the country – and even the world at times – are fixed on Bucks County, and this election was no exception,” Harvie added. “It is our obligation to the voters and the candidates to treat every race with equal importance, and with a close race yet to be decided here in Bucks, we will continue to work diligently to count any remaining, lawfully cast ballots as quickly as we can.”
Media Contact: James O’Malley, 215-348-6414, [email protected]