Pennsylvania, unlike many other states, does not do early voting. But the state does have “on-demand mail ballot voting” — a process in which voters can request, receive, complete and return a mail ballot in person at county elections offices.
Officials now say the increased interest in “on-demand” mail ballot voting has put a strain on elections offices.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, said Republicans and Democrats alike were turned away when they couldn’t be accommodated during the election offices’ business hours.
“This has nothing to do with disenfranchising voters, nor has this anything to do with partisanship,” he said, adding that the lawsuit is “an attempt by the Trump campaign to create an issue where it doesn’t really exist for their own political gain.”
Santarsiero distinguished between early voting and on-demand mail ballot voting.
“I think we should have true early voting in Pennsylvania, where anyone can vote before Election Day, if that’s what they choose to do,” he said. “But we don’t have that.”
Baer, the Warrington Republican Committee chairperson, said the county “should have anticipated” the increase in demand for mail ballots. She said she has also spoken with a dozen voters who requested their mail ballots a month ago and have yet to receive them.
“They know that there was a push on the mail in ballots,” she said. “The Democrats have been doing this for years, and now the Republicans are on board and supporting this process, and now they don’t have the manpower to manage it, and that’s the responsibility of our commissioners who oversee the board of elections.”
