Why do voters in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, have more time to vote by mail? – NBC10 Philadelphia

Voters in Philadelphia’s prominent suburban district, where presidential candidates are drawing intense interest, had their last chance to apply for a mail-in ballot on Friday.

A court set a 5 p.m. deadline for voters in Bucks County to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot.

The deadline is a three-day extension in response to a lawsuit alleging voters were disenfranchised when they were turned away by shuttered county application processing offices. The lawsuit was filed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Republican National Committee and the campaign of GOP Senate candidate David McCormick.

Deadlines and office closures, like those at polling places on Election Day, led to long lines and confusion among some voters who thought they were entitled to vote if they lined up at polls closing time. However, county election offices are not official polls and officials announced their closing hours until 14:00 on the weekend.

Trump’s campaign lawsuit stated that people who lined up to apply in person by 5 p.m. Tuesday should be allowed to receive ballots even after the deadline. But the Bucks County elections office denied voters that right and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit said.

Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Trauger ruled that the Board of Elections violated state election law and granted an extension through Friday.

Unlike other states, Pennsylvania does not have a true early in-person voting system. Voters can apply for early mail ballots online or in person at county election buildings.

Doing this in person can take about 12 minutes and requires applying for a mail-in ballot, waiting for a barcoded envelope to print, and then being able to cast the ballot on-site if voters choose. Or they may put it in a mailbox or mailbox. Election offices must receive ballots by 8pm on Tuesday; Until then, a postmark isn’t enough, according to the state.

No-excuse voting by mail is relatively new to Pennsylvania. The Legislature passed the expansion of the practice in 2019. In 2020, Trump said — without any evidence to support the claim — that mail-in voting was rife with fraud, discouraging many Republicans from voting by mail. That changed this year, when Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk endorsed the practice and urged their supporters to vote early by mail.

Pennsylvania is this year’s biggest, top-voting battleground, and by far the most visited by Trump and Harris. The state narrowly tilted toward Trump in 2016, then tilted toward Biden in 2020. Bucks County voted for Hillary Clinton by a single point in 2016 before Biden widened the Democratic lead to five points in 2020.