ERIE, Pa. — Election officials in Erie County, Pennsylvania, say that the election in this key state in the race for the White House went well there Tuesday.
Despite previous concerns over threats of potential voter intimidation, there were no apparent problems.
This election season featured constant visits to Erie and other communities in the Keystone State by President Trump and Former Vice President Biden. President Trump had a razor-thin margin of victory and took the state's 20 electoral votes in 2016. He reportedly had only a 44,000-vote margin out of 6 million votes cast back then.
Just down the block from the Erie County Courthouse on Wednesday afternoon there was a "Count Every Vote" demonstration in Perry Square in downtown Erie. Those taking part in the small gathering were calling for all votes cast to be carefully counted.
Election Council Chairman Carl Anderson says the turnout was 70% or higher here in Erie and other parts of Pennsylvania when it came to voting. There is no early in-person voting in the state.
This was the first year that absentee or mail-in ballots were allowed for anyone, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Erie County Board of Elections staffers are now working in their fishbowl, as they call it, tabulating the 51,000 absentee ballots which came in. But also there's a separate room where they are checking signatures and whether an absentee ballot was properly sealed in the security envelope to determine if they are valid.
And even that process, which was extended by three days for receiving these absentee ballots, has been challenged by Republicans in court. That's why attorneys are here in force just like in other communities around Pennsylvania.
So how long will that counting process take in this particular battleground state?
Election officials here in Erie estimate it could be Thursday or so by the time they finish up with the current tabulation. Overall in Pennsylvania, officials say there are millions of ballots to be counted especially in larger urban areas like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
And again, a change in voting law from Pennsylvania's highest court will allow for more mail-in ballots to be accepted through Friday. They said that was due to their concerns over large volume of those absentee ballots going through the postal system and possible delivery delays.
