Mail Ballots Must Arrive by 8 p.m. Tuesday in Pennsylvania
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Pennsylvania. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and any voter in line by 8 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.
Mail ballots face a stricter clock. A completed mail ballot must be received by the voter's county board of elections by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 to be counted. A postmark by 8 p.m. is not sufficient, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Voters should not rely on the mail this late. A completed ballot can be returned by hand to the county election office, including through a county-designated drop box or satellite office where the county provides one. A completed mail ballot cannot be submitted at a polling place.
Two deadlines have already passed. Voter registration closed Oct. 19, and the deadline to apply for a mail ballot was 5 p.m. on Oct. 27.
Pennsylvania has more than 9 million registered voters, including 3.8 million Democrats, 3.6 million Republicans and 1.5 million independent voters, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said in a briefing. More than 634,000 Pennsylvanians had already returned mail ballots at that point.
Identification rules are narrow. Most voters do not need to show ID at their regular polling place. ID is required only for first-time voters at a polling place, and accepted forms include photo and non-photo identification.
Voters who requested a mail ballot but want to vote in person can bring the ballot and its outer return envelope to their polling place to surrender it, then vote on the county's voting system. Voters who requested a mail ballot but did not receive one can cast a provisional ballot at their polling place.
Pennsylvania voters will choose a governor, with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro facing Republican State Treasurer Stacey Garrity, along with all 435 seats in the U.S. House and 35 U.S. Senate seats nationally.
Polls taken before the final weekend showed Shapiro ahead. A Franklin and Marshall College poll of likely voters last week put Shapiro at 59 percent and Garrity at 36 percent. Polls are snapshots of voter preferences, not forecasts of results.
Nationally, an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found Democrats ahead by 10 points among registered voters and 8 points among likely voters on the generic congressional ballot. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Oct. 26 put Democrats up 8 points, with President Donald Trump's approval at 32 percent.
Voters can check their registration status, polling place and a sample ballot at vote.pa.gov and on their county's website. Secretary Schmidt urged voters to be patient with poll workers and with those counting ballots.
County election offices must receive mail ballots by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Voters who still hold a ballot should return it in person rather than mailing it.