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Voters in Pennsylvania county courted by Harris, Trump, have 1 more day to apply for mail ballots

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Voters in a bellwether suburban Philadelphia county courted heavily by the presidential candidates had their last chance Friday to apply for a mail-in ballot, as a county clear across the state gave voters who didn’t receive their mail-in ballot another chance to get one.

A judge in Erie County, in Pennsylvania’s northwestern corner, ruled Friday in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party that the estimated 15,000 people who applied for, but did not receive a mail-in ballot, can go into the county elections office and get a replacement.

The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot has passed in Pennsylvania, the biggest, most vote-rich presidential battleground state this year and has by far the most visits by Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

But, now, Erie County’s elections office will be open every day through Monday for voters to go in, cancel the mail-in ballot they didn’t receive in the mail and get another one over the counter, said Cliff Levine, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party.

In suburban Philadelphia’s Bucks County, a court set a deadline of 5 p.m. for voters there to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot.

About 100 people were in line as of 4 p.m. at the county’s elections office in Doylestown, and reported that the process was taking about two hours.

The deadline is a three-day extension, granted in response to a Trump campaign lawsuit alleging that voters faced disenfranchisement when they were turned away by county application-processing offices that had closed.

The deadlines and office closures led to long lines and confusion among some voters, who thought that, as in polling places on Election Day, they had the right to cast a ballot if they were in line by the poll closing time. But the county elections offices are not official polls, and officials had posted closing times as early as 2 p.m. on the weekend.

The Trump campaign lawsuit said people who were in line by Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline to apply in person for a mail ballot should have been allowed to get a ballot, even after the deadline. However, Bucks County’s election office denied voters that right and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit said.

Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Trauger ruled that the Board of Elections violated the state election code and ordered an extension through Friday.

Unlike other states, Pennsylvania doesn’t have true early in-person voting. Voters can apply early for mail ballots online or in-person at county election buildings.

Doing so in person can take about 12 minutes and requires applying for a mail ballot, waiting for a bar-coded envelope to be printed and then, if voters wish, they can cast the ballot on the spot. Or they can put it in a drop box or a mail box. Election offices must receive the ballots by 8 p.m. on Tuesday; a postmark by that time isn’t sufficient, according to the state.

No excuse mail-in voting is relatively new to Pennsylvania. The Legislature passed an expansion of the practice in 2019. In 2020, Trump — without any evidence to back the claim — said mail-in voting was rife with fraud, which discouraged many Republicans for voting by mail. That’s changed this year, with Trump and billionaire business mogul Elon Musk endorsing the practice and calling on supporters to vote early by mail.

Pennsylvania went narrowly for Trump in 2016 before swinging to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Bucks County backed Democrat Hillary Clinton by a single point in 2016 before Biden widened the Democratic lead to five points in 2020.

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Associated Press reporter Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Mike Catalini And Michael Rubinkam, The Associated Press