(NewsNation) — Pennsylvania voters should prepare for potential swings in reported results on election night due to the state’s complex vote-counting procedures.
With polls closing at 8 p.m. ET, initial results could show significant shifts between candidates as counties report mail-in ballots and Election Day votes at different times throughout the night.
State law prohibits counties from processing mail-in ballots before 7 a.m. on Election Day, and results cannot be published until after polls close. This restriction, combined with county-by-county reporting autonomy, means early results may not reflect the outcome.
Race for Pennsylvania: Democrats dominate early voter turnout
Philadelphia election officials have invested in new technology to speed up the count. The city plans to deploy six new mail-in ballot processing machines capable of opening 40,000 envelopes per hour — a significant upgrade from older machines that handled just 3,600 hourly.
The 2020 presidential election illustrates the potential for early result fluctuations.
President Joe Biden initially led when early votes were counted before former President Donald Trump pulled ahead as Election Day votes were tallied. After all mail-in ballots were counted, Biden ultimately won the state by approximately 80,000 votes.
Trump narrowly leads Harris in Pennsylvania: DDHQ
Trump maintained a narrow lead over Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday in Pennsylvania. That’s according to the latest forecasts from NewsNation’s partners Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) and The Hill, which predict Trump has a 51% chance of winning in the Keystone State.
The opposite was true as recently as Oct. 17. The candidates were tied until Trump gained a slight lead on Oct. 21.
Where Trump and Harris stand on issues that matter to voters
Nearly twice as many Democrats than Republicans have voted early in Pennsylvania.
Tuesday marks Pennsylvania residents’ last chance to request mail-in or absentee ballots. With more than 1.4 million early ballots cast, Trump and Harris are in a close race that could flip the state.
Registered Democrats had returned 849,849 ballots as of Tuesday, compared to the 468,067 that registered Republicans have returned so far, according to state election data.
Early voting data, however, only shows a person’s party affiliation — not how they voted.
The current odds in every swing state
Election officials need to process mail ballots before they can count them — an undertaking that varies by state. It often takes several days or weeks to finalize election results and certify a winner.
Pennsylvania is home to 19 electoral votes, the most of any battleground state this election cycle, DDHQ noted.
Trump narrowly carried the state by 0.7% in 2016 but lost his hold on Pennsylvania to Biden in the 2020 election.
NewsNation’s Katie Smith contributed to this report.
