Election 2020: Montgomery, Chester counties provide update on mail-in ballot status
NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, mail-in ballots will start being opened and counted at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday, though it's likely it could take days to determine a winner.
In Norristown, Pennsylvania, the early voting line was steady Monday night.
"I'm going to try and ignore actually the whole election and then just wait till the results, which I don't even think the results may be in by tomorrow," said Jill Johnson of Norristown.
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In Montgomery County, officials say they're happy with where they're at in terms of ballots they've received.
"We have 223,000 ballots back, which is 80% of the applications that we sent out. It's a record high," said Ken Lawrence, the Montgomery County Board of Elections Chair.
Officials add the process of counting them will be lengthy, including waiting for mail-in ballots that come in after Election Day.
But they're critically important votes. In 2016, President Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the state by just 44,000 votes.
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"We're hopeful that we can be done in about 36 hours based on the number of ballots we have," said Lawrence.
Chester County officials said the same.
"We've issued 172,000 mail-in and absentee ballots and as of now we've received about 148,000 back. We're hopeful that we can get through most of them by sunrise Wednesday morning," said Bill Turner, the Chester County Board of Elections Director.
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REPORT A PROBLEM AT THE POLLS
If you encounter a problem while trying to vote in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware, you can contact the following hotlines:
Pennsylvania:
1-800-VOTES-PA
New Jersey:
1-877-NJ-VOTER.
Delaware:
Call the Department of Elections in your county
