In a rare step, 3 South Dakota counties are set to vote on counting ballots by hand

[BumRushDaShow]

39. It's done on purpose

and both blue counties AND deep red counties in PA have BEGGED the state Legislature to modify the law to allow for pre-canvassing the ballots so they can be counted/tabulated on election day.

When Democrats recaptured the PA state House in 2022 (which the "polls" did not see coming), they have started attempting to move legislation that never saw the light of day when the GOP controlled the chamber. One such bill deals with the mail ballot issue -

Pennsylvania state House advances bill to give counties more time to count mail ballots

by Carter Walker of Votebeat | May 2, 2024



HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania House Democrats are again pushing to allow counties time to process mail ballots before the day of the election. But the effort appears doomed because of the Senate GOP majority’s insistence on pairing the measure with an expanded voter ID law.

A House bill passed Wednesday in a party line vote would allow counties up to seven days before election day to open ballot envelopes and run ballots through scanning machines, though results would still be tabulated on the day of the election. Currently, counties cannot begin processing mail ballots until the morning of the election, which means counties with large numbers of mail ballots may need additional days to finish counting and report complete results.

The extra time for the process, known as pre-canvassing, has been a priority for Democratic lawmakers this session and has drawn bipartisan support at the county level. But efforts to cut a deal with Republicans have repeatedly fallen apart, a fate that seems likely to repeat, even though this year’s bill is much more narrowly tailored than previous measures.

“I believe this is the time, given that it is a presidential year and no one wants to go through the conspiracy theories,” said Rep. Scott Conklin, (D., Centre), the bill’s prime sponsor. “This alone will clean up 99 percent of what the public is worried about.”

(snip)

https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/05/precanvassing-mail-ballots-2024-election-pennsylvania-legislature/

The GOP still controls the PA Senate and that is where this will go to die.

When we mail the ballots (addressed to the city), they are run through, unopened, some kind of scanner that will scan the barcode/QR code to note receipt of the ballot and record it. That info is made available to the state as well as the local Ward/Division, and an email is generated to confirm receipt and to basically say "you're done" (unless some problem is found on that outer envelope that needs to be corrected - and then that is a whole other process of "curing", which has been a PITA because that was not part of the original state law so counties came up with their own ordinances for it).