SNAIL’S PACE

Philly to Face Vote Count Delays Over GOP Lawsuit

At the last minute, the Philadelphia Elections Board voted to bring back poll book reconciliation on Election Day.

The Philadelphia elections board voted 2-1 at an emergency city commissioners meeting on Tuesday morning to reinstate poll book reconciliation, a procedure meant to prevent potential double votes by scanning poll books to check that someone who cast an in-person vote didn’t also cast a mail ballot. The meeting in Pennsylvania’s most populated city came after conservative group Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections filed a lawsuit challenging the board’s decision to get rid of the process. While a few dozen double votes were allegedly found in 2020, according to the lawsuit, nothing was uncovered in the past three citywide elections. None of the other 66 counties in the state will use this procedure—which essentially guarantees Philadelphia’s vote count will face delays, according to NBC News. Possibly 20,000 to 30,000 vote-by-mail ballots will be processed “on a rolling basis after they are reconciled against the poll books,” said Republican commissioner Seth Bluestein, who voted to restore the procedure because the board had “no other choice.” “When there are conversations that occur later this evening about whether or not Philadelphia has counted all of their ballots, that the reasons some ballots will not be counted is because Republican attorneys targeted Philadelphia, and only Philadelphia, in trying to force us to do a procedure that no other county does,” Bluestein said. Former White House official for Donald Trump and CEO of the conservative group who filed the suit said the board’s decision to restore the procedure will “protect the integrity of our count.”