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Hundreds of Suburban Philadelphia Voters Still Haven’t Gotten Their Absentee Ballots

Several hundred voters in Montgomery County, Pa., outside Philadelphia, have complained to local party officials that they have yet to receive the absentee ballots they requested, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Completed absentee ballots must be submitted to the county's election board by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4, raising the possibility that some voters may not receive their ballots in time. The Inquirer reported that a county spokeswoman said it is "current with absentee ballot requests." A record number of Montgomery County voters — more than 29,000, according to local officials — asked for an absentee ballot for the Nov. 8 election.

That's up from 23,069 ballots requested in the 2012 general election. More than 84 percent of Montgomery County voters who requested an absentee ballot in 2012 submitted their votes that way, the fifth-lowest percentage in the state.

Most Pennsylvanians vote in-person on Election Day, as there is no early voting in the state and absentee ballots account for a small percentage of voters. None of Pennsylvania's 67 counties had even 10 percent of voters return an absentee ballot in 2012.

About Electionland

ProPublica’s Electionland project covers problems that prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots during the 2020 elections. Our coalition of newsrooms around the country are investigating issues related to voter registration, pandemic-related changes to voting, the shift to vote-by-mail, cybersecurity, voter education, misinformation, and more.

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