HARRISBURG — Since 2020, when former President Donald Trump and his allies spread conspiracy theories that the presidential election had been stolen, such falsehoods have become a prevalent feature of U.S. elections.
That’s especially true in swing states like Pennsylvania. And this year, with Trump on the ballot once again, disinformation, misconceptions, and simple confusion about the commonwealth’s election processes are once again circulating widely.
Sometimes, familiar theories reemerge. Other times, new issues pop up and gain traction. Here are five of the prominent false or misleading claims that are circulating right now, and the facts you need to know:
Do slow Pennsylvania results mean something is wrong?
No. Pennsylvania’s mail voting laws are set up in a way that makes slow results likelier than in other states — though county election officials say the process will be smoother this year than in the notoriously slow 2020 presidential election.
In 2020, it took four days for Pennsylvania to count enough ballots that the election could be called by news outlets. It was the decisive state in confirming Joe Biden’s victory, which means it had the whole country waiting.
Counting took that long for several reasons.
The commonwealth had legalized widespread mail voting the previous year, meaning that the 2020 general election was the first high-turnout election in which the new system was used, and it was still unfamiliar to election workers.
On top of that, mail voting use was extremely high because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was then near its peak.
Further, thanks to widespread mail delays, the state Supreme Court had ordered counties to continue accepting mail ballots four days past the usual deadline, so long as they were postmarked on time.
Finally, unlike many mail voting states, election workers in Pennsylvania weren’t — and still aren’t — allowed to precanvass, aka process, mail ballots before Election Day.
In short, it was a perfect storm for slow results.
Election laws in the commonwealth haven’t changed much since then. However, in 2022, counties that accepted new election funding did get mandates to count ballots continuously and to report their mail ballot totals at midnight, which lets observers know how many are still uncounted and roughly how long it will take. Many counties also used that new state money for updated equipment and staff.
With the largest population in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia gets a lot of scrutiny during elections because its huge number of votes significantly affects state results, and because counting that many ballots can take a while.
City Commissioner Lisa Deeley, who chaired the Philadelphia Board of Elections in 2020 and remains on the board this year, said she can’t guarantee the city will have results on Election Night.
“We’re going to get done faster,” she said, comparing this election to 2020. “But whether or not a contest is called will be determined entirely by the state of the contest. Depending on how close it is, it could rely on provisional totals. If it’s not a close race, they’ll be able to call it.”
Provisional ballots are checked carefully and counted after mail ballots. If the presidential race is close enough that the outcome relies on these ballots, unofficial results could take days and there will be little counties can do about it.
But, Deeley said, she can guarantee one thing. The election will run much, much more smoothly than it did in 2020.
“I feel much more confident going to this election,” she said.
There are a few reasons. The city isn’t expecting to have to accept mail ballots past the 8 p.m. deadline on Nov. 5, which means it will know exactly how many ballots it needs to count much earlier and will be able to give accurate schedules.
Plus, a few tech upgrades have made a big difference. Philadelphia now uses electronic pollbooks, which means the process of pollbook reconciliation, in which workers verify nobody voted more than once, will be significantly faster.
“What took days in 2020 now will take a matter of hours,” Deeley said.
And finally, the city is expecting to see fewer total mail ballots. In 2020, about half of all Philadelphia voters cast their ballots by mail, which meant around 375,000 mail ballots for workers to process and count. This year, Department of State data show the city approved about 234,000 mail ballots, which means that is the maximum workers will have to deal with.
“That’s going to make a difference,” she said.
Were early voters in the Philly suburbs disenfranchised by lines?
No. But voters in Bucks County, outside Philadelphia, did indeed suffer through long lines thanks to the commonwealth’s relatively slow in-person mail voting option.
Pennsylvania doesn’t have early voting in the way that many states have it, in which a person can vote ahead of Election Day on a machine.
However, the commonwealth has had widespread mail voting since 2020, and that law does allow for an early voting facsimile: At county election offices, voters are able to apply for, receive, get assistance with, and turn in a mail ballot all in one stop.
Some counties, like Philadelphia and Allegheny, also put additional resources behind this option by opening satellite election offices that provide these services, along with the county office.
However, because this option involves people filling out mail ballots by hand, the process is relatively slow.
This election cycle, Trump’s campaign has strongly encouraged supporters to vote early and in person, leading to considerable demand at some county offices offering vote-by-mail services.
In Bucks County, this led to some conflict.
The deadline to apply for a mail ballot was 5 p.m. on Oct. 29. On that day, a long line formed outside Bucks County’s main election office in Doylestown, which wasn’t prepared to handle the demand and left frustrated voters still in line after the deadline.
These voters would have still been able to vote in person on Election Day — or if they had already received a mail ballot, would have been able to simply drop it off on any day leading up to the election — but voters committed to casting their ballots early were frustrated.
The Trump campaign sued, and a county judge ruled that Bucks should give its voters an additional day to apply for a mail ballot. They had until 5 p.m. on Oct. 30 to get their applications in.
Will voting machines be rigged to change my vote?
No. In the past, voters in Pennsylvania have observed problems with miscalibrated touch screen voting machines, in which it appeared the machine was responding erratically to attempts to select candidates.
This is a problem, but it’s not a sign of hacking or fraud.
First of all, voting systems in the commonwealth are vetted several times.
The Pennsylvania Election Code requires the Department of State secretary to examine and certify any voting machine before counties are allowed to purchase it. This happens on top of a certification already done by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
According to a directive from the Pennsylvania Department of State, the certification process:
- Ensures machines are not connected to the internet;
- Uses various methods to detect if the machines have been tampered with;
- And confirms that the machines have measures to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information, such as vote data and passwords.
Before each election, counties again test each machine set to be used to ensure it functions properly. This is called “logic and accuracy” testing.
Typically, counties will first ensure that none of the data storage devices in the machines contain votes from the last election. Once that is done, mock ballots are fed through the machine to simulate the election to test the tabulators. In the case of ballot marking devices, the machines are checked to ensure they properly record the tester’s on-screen selections onto the printed-out paper ballot. The results recorded by the machine are then compared against the ballots to ensure the machine correctly records votes.
The Pennsylvania Department of State outlines how the testing should be done on its website. This testing is open to the public to observe.
After testing is done, the machines are closed and secured with a tamper-evident seal to ensure no access occurs before Election Day.
All this testing doesn’t eradicate problems. But when there are problems, they aren’t kept secret.
In 2019, high-profile issues with ExpressVote XL voting machines in both Northampton and Philadelphia Counties led to a settlement that required counties to track and report malfunctions to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
The agency then publishes these reports on its website within 105 days of an election.
Finally, Pennsylvania extensively double checks its election results.
After a 2018 settlement, all counties had to purchase machines that could produce a “voter-verifiable paper ballot” that could be audited. Previously, some counties had used machines with touch screens that produce no paper ballot, devices known as direct recording equipment.
The state conducts two audits after elections, but before final certification.
One is a 2% statistical recount, in which counties randomly sample either 2% of all ballots cast in each race, or sample a random assortment of 2,000 ballots, whichever is fewer.
The other is a statewide “risk-limiting audit” in which the state pulls a random sample of paper ballots and compares votes recorded on the paper to totals from vote-counting machines, to check the tabulation machines themselves.
Studies have shown that machine counting is significantly more accurate than hand-counting ballots, which is a method that some election denial groups, like Audit the Vote, have pushed for.
Are thousands of fake voter registrations being accepted?
No. Considerable disinformation has circulated around Pennsylvania over who can register to vote in the commonwealth.
Last month, a Republican activist falsely accused a group of Erie nuns of voter fraud, after being confused about why they were all registered at the same address (it was a monastery). Leaders in several GOP-controlled counties also issued vague statements about stopping fraudulent registrations, but offered few details about the alleged fraud.
Fake or improper voter registrations are not unheard of, though the commonwealth has a number of checks and balances designed to prevent it.
In order to register, prospective voters must provide their full name, date of birth, residential address, and driver’s license — or state identification — number. If a person does not have a state ID, they can use the last four digits of their Social Security number.
A person must be at least 18 years old in order to register, and must be a U.S. citizen for at least a month before the election, and a resident of the Pennsylvania address on their application for at least 30 days.
Election workers check this information and put it on file. Then, when voting at a new polling place for the first time, any newly registered voter must provide identification in order to cast a ballot. This identification can include a state card, passport, or some other document that includes both the name and address that matches the voter registration. A full list of acceptable ID is available on the state’s website.
If a person does manage to wrongly register, the penalties are steep: Under federal law, violators could be punished by up to seven years in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, or both. They might also lose their voting rights.
Pennsylvania Department of State Secretary Al Schmidt stressed in a recent briefing that the laws governing registration and voting are “extensive.”
In every county, he said, professional election administrators are “verifying that every person who applied to register to vote is indeed eligible to be registered. They’re verifying that every person who requested a mail ballot has provided the proper identification to receive one. They’re verifying that every returned mail ballot packet comes from a registered voter who has followed the instructions, as required by law. They’re training their election staff and poll workers to ensure only registered voters are able to vote in person on Election Day.”
Are large numbers of noncitizens voting in Pennsylvania?
No. Noncitizen voting is illegal in Pennsylvania and extremely rare in the United States, according to the Brennan Center for Justice — 42 jurisdictions that handled the tabulation of 23.5 million votes in November 2016 reported just 30 cases.
A Pennsylvania election official acknowledged in 2017 that, because of an issue with the voter registration process connected to getting a driver’s license, 544 ballots had been cast illegally by noncitizens over 18 years. That’s out of 93 million ballots, the Associated Press reported at the time.
The introduction of automatic voter registration at Pennsylvania has renewed GOP scrutiny of the system. Still, the Pennsylvania Department of State says it “has built-in protections that enable only U.S. citizens to apply to register to vote.”
People must provide proof of citizenship, and county election offices must verify they are eligible to vote, just as they do with every newly registered voter.
Carter Walker of Votebeat and Sarah Anne Hughes of Spotlight PA contributed reporting for this story.