ERIE, Pa. — As we have been telling you, many political observers feel the heavily contested state of Pennsylvania, and in particular the community of Erie County, Pa., could play major roles in determining the winner of the Presidential election.
We have a follow-up to our story on the voting situation there in Erie, Pa..
Last week, both Erie County, Pa. party chairs told 2 On Your Side about a mail ballot problem there which, as we reported previously, caused the county election office there to be sued by both the state Democratic and Republican parties with claims of blocked voter access.
Erie Republican Party Chairman Tom Eddy said, "They haven't yet got their mail in ballots that they requested. Here in Pennsylvania you have to request the mail - in ballot and they haven't received them yet."
Erie Democratic Party Chairman Sam Talarico added, "Our elections office has all the modern equipment to open the ballots the same day. But we expect the results to come in slowly in Erie County - slower than they normally are jsut because of a few glitches. Our county elections office - they're fantastic. I mean there were some problems but they're equipped to fix them."
NBC Nightly News on Saturday actually showed off that $900,000 dollars worth of new equipment and additional hired staffers to sort, cross check identification, and then tabulate the ballots in Erie County, Pa.
It will all be done in visible office space with windows.
But on the mail ballot issues Erie County, Pa. Elections Clerk Karen Chillcott told NBC News, "It's so disappointing. We've prepared so much over the past few months to pull this all together."
She did say they are working with the two parties who actually filed the lawsuits to improve the process and the courthouse office was open this past weekend to help provide in-person voting access for people affected by the problem.
Under Pennsylvania law, mail ballots cannot be opened and tabulated until Election Day. NBC reports it took four days to do so in 2020.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, who is the Pa. state election chief, said in his daily online media briefing on Sunday, "I want to remind everyone that counting millions of ballots takes time. And predicting exactly when Pennsylvania will have unofficial results that show a clear winner just isn't possible."
