PA: 150k+ Ballots Mailed on Holidays, Voters Born in the 1800s, Ballots mailed after Election Day
On September 17th, 2020, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania removed Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins from the 2020 Presidential election ballot in Pennsylvania. The decision finalized the candidates on the ticket. All ballots printed before the decision had to be re-printed and fixed by Pennsylvania counties. Philadelphia Deputy City Commissioner Nick Custodio stated it would take 8-10 days to begin mailing out ballots.
Philadelphia sent 3,050 mail-in ballots before 09/25/2020:
Mail-in Ballot Data Issues
151,402 mail-in ballots were sent out on federally recognized holidays (USPS is closed on Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veteran’s Day):
- 170 ballots were mailed on September 7th, 2020 (Labor Day)
- 151,103 mail-in ballots were mailed on October 12th, 2020 (Columbus Day)
- 129 ballots were mailed on November 11th, 2020 (Veteran’s Day)
- 126,485 mail-in ballots were sent out on Columbus Day in Bucks County
Bucks County
Bucks County has 483,590 registered voters. According to PA Open Data, Bucks County mailed 126,485 mail-in ballots to voters on Columbus Day.
30.9% of Bucks County votes were mail-in ballots. Bucks County also used mail-in ballot drop-off boxes.
Bucks County mailed a total of 192,310 mail in-ballots. 65.77% of all mail-in ballots sent to Bucks County voters were mailed on Columbus Day.
Columbus Day is a holiday is a federally recognized holiday. Post offices are closed. Columbus Day 2020 was also a state holiday in PA.
Voters Born in the 1800s
Overall, 63 voters were born in the 1800s (53 were born on 01/01/1800). 40 voters born in the 1800s returned their mail-in ballots.
Pennsylvania provided data on their Open Date website involving mail-in ballots. Issues with the data include:
- 374,942 mail-in ballots were mailed to voters before September 25th, the earliest dates counties believed they could send final ballots out
- 104 mail-in ballots were approved between 4/10/1920 and 12/31/19
- 63 individuals born in the 1800s applied for mail-in ballots
- 262 mail-in ballot applications were approved after 11/03/2020