Tipsheet

Here's What Happened in a Key PA County Yesterday

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  November 02, 2024 6:30 AM

There is reportedly a five-alarm fire in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This area will decide the 2024 election. Donald Trump must win here. He split with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and won the state. While historically an evenly split county, the voter registration advantage has tilted toward the Republicans. Shockingly, that coincides with some administrative issues at election sites that some allege are intentional. 

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee were incensed that voters were reportedly turned away during the early voting process. They sued, and a Pennsylvania judge sided with them, extending the deadline until yesterday. Even then, it was a shambolic process (via The Guardian): 

A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday sided with Donald Trump’s campaign and agreed to extend an in-person voting option in suburban Philadelphia, where long lines on the final day led to complaints voters were being disenfranchised by an unprepared election office. 

A lawsuit demanding an extension of Tuesday’s 5pm deadline in Bucks county was filed on Wednesday morning after long queues outside the county’s election office on the last day for applications led to security guards cutting off the line and telling some of those waiting they would not be able to apply. 

Videos of the scenes were widely circulated on social media, fuelling rumours of voter suppression. 

The Trump campaign was joined by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick in the lawsuit, alleging that voters waiting outside election offices for mail ballots were turned away empty-handed and ordered to leave after the deadline expired at 5pm on Tuesday.

[…] 

Judge Jeffrey Trauger said in a one-page order that Bucks county voters who want to apply for an early mail ballot now have until Friday. 

The queues for late mail ballots were a result of Pennsylvania not having an early on-site voting system at designated spots, as is the case in some other states. Instead, voters can apply for ballots on demand at election offices before filling them out and submitting them on the spot, a procedure that takes about 10 minutes. 

Still, the videos on the ground painted a different picture, where officials were criticized for doing the bare minimum to accommodate voters and the judge’s order. People were allegedly waiting five-plus hours to vote, with some locations reportedly having inadequate staff to handle the waves of voters everyone and their mother could have predicted. If this isn’t voter suppression, it’s outright incompetence:

Activist Scott Presler, who's been organizing voter registration drives, said everyone waiting in line cast their ballot.