Under a new United States Postal Service policy, postmarks are now applied at regional sorting facilities, not the local post office receiving the mail. This new policy has the potential to create significant delays for mail-in and absentee ballots, resulting in ballots cast by mail to not be received by county election offices by the time the polls close on Election Day—even if they were mailed several days in advance. In Pennsylvania, this creates a unique risk given that our state law provides that mail-in and absentee ballots can only be counted if they are received by 8 p.m. on the day of an election. Together, this law and the new postmarking procedure could result in legitimately and timely cast ballots not being counted.

To ensure every ballot is counted, we are introducing legislation to extend the date by which county election offices can accept mail-in ballots. Our bill would allow mail-in and absentee ballots to be counted if they are received up to seven days after the election, mirroring the current deadline for military and overseas ballots. By aligning the deadline for all voters with the existing standard for military and overseas ballots, we create a simple, uniform window that guarantees every timely cast vote is actually counted.
 
Voting is the foundation of our democratic society. We ask that you support this commonsense piece of legislation and join us in updating this outdated law. Help protect the right to vote and ensure that every vote counts.