When will Centre County have election results? Pre-canvassing complete but counting continues
Centre County election workers spent 24 hours processing a record-breaking number of mail-in ballots for Tuesday’s election, but like other counties across Pennsylvania, it could be days before unofficial results are reported.
With counties throughout the key battleground state in various stages of counting an unprecedented influx of mail-in ballots, Centre County officials wrapped up pre-canvassing efforts at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center Wednesday afternoon.
Election workers began processing about 29,000 mail-in ballots at 7 a.m. Tuesday and worked through 2 a.m. Wednesday. About 30 workers returned at 9 a.m. to continue the process, and finished extracting another 3,340 vote-by-mail ballots about two hours later.
Commissioner Michael Pipe credited election workers for their efforts.
“You’re talking about over 1,000 people who made this election happen, so it’s reflective of the community spirit,” Pipe said Wednesday. “It’s reflective of people’s willingness to help make sure we have a strong democracy.”
Early results for mail-in and in-person voting show more than 76,000 ballots cast out of 112,090 registered voters.
But Centre County still has to inspect and hand count some ballots that were flagged during the counting process as well as provisional and military ballots. Official election results must be certified by Nov. 23, but unofficial results are due to the Department of State by 5 p.m. Nov. 10. To ensure all qualified ballots are counted, the board of elections reserved time through Saturday and on Monday and Tuesday to review ballots and compile results before sending them to the Department of State.
“The diligence that’s going into the process right now should increase the resolve of people to want to have good results,” Pipe said. “What we’re doing right now is vetting, thoroughness, again, strengthening the integrity of the process. That’s what’s going on right now.”
Hundreds of ballots were flagged during the pre-canvassing process, Commissioner Mark Higgins said.
Pipe said there was a “high number of naked ballots,” which refer to ballots without the “secrecy” envelope. Other reasons for disqualification include incorrect return materials, torn ballots and damaged envelopes.
According to unofficial county elections results, updated late Wednesday afternoon, 76,450 total ballots have been counted. Of those, 38,978 are for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and 35,849 are for President Donald Trump. Early results did not include the 500 mail-in ballots that were inspected and hand-counted by the board of elections or results from precinct 24, which is located in the Bryce Jordan Center.
The county is double checking precinct data from the BJC to ensure unofficial results matched the USB sticks that were turned in to the elections office Tuesday night, Pipe said Wednesday. Earlier this year, four Penn State precincts were consolidated, and Pipe said there may have been confusion among students who were unsure of their polling location.
It’s unclear how many people voted at the BJC , though long lines of students were reported there early Tuesday morning.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 7:20 AM.
