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Pennsylvania certified the results of the 2024 general election on Wednesday, nearly finalizing a process that many feared would be mired in contention.
Each of the commonwealth’s 67 counties had to certify their local results first. A few missed the Nov. 25 deadline due to outstanding provisional ballots or delays caused by the start of a recount in the U.S. Senate race.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt received the last of the original certifications earlier this week and then signed off on the results of this year’s contests.
“After a careful review of the counties’ election results, I am pleased to confirm that Pennsylvania had a free, fair, safe, and secure general election on Nov. 5,” Schmidt said in a news release. “Thank you to county election officials for their hard work preparing for and conducting a smooth election.”
More than 7 million Pennsylvanians cast ballots in this year’s election, according to the Department of State. That represents a turnout rate of nearly 77%, a slight increase over the 76% turnout rate in 2020.
Everything that threatened to make Pennsylvania’s certification of election results complicated or protracted never came to pass: No rogue county commissioners resisted signing the counties’ original certifications, lawsuits over the outcome never emerged, and candidates did not dispute the results.
In the end, the state avoided the messy post-election environment that followed the 2020 contest, when then-President Donald Trump’s campaign sought to reverse his loss through court challenges and a scheme to submit alternate electors.
That year, the state certified the election on Nov. 24. That date was much earlier than the delayed certification in the 2022 midterms, when conservative-driven recount petitions pushed the signoff to Dec. 22.
For most races, Wednesday’s certification marks the end of the process. But for the presidential contest, there are two steps left to finalize Trump’s win in the Electoral College.
First, Gov. Josh Shapiro must sign a certificate of ascertainment by Dec. 11 authorizing the state’s 19 electors for Trump to cast their votes when the Electoral College meets. Then the electors will meet in Harrisburg on Dec. 17.
Earlier legal fights set the stage for the election
The 2024 election cycle in Pennsylvania saw a slew of litigation before Election Day, a relatively smooth process the day of the election, and a recount that was called off before it could finish.
In the months and years leading up to the Nov. 5 election, litigants fought over various aspects of the Election Code, including whether voters whose mail ballots are rejected for technical errors have the right to cast a provisional ballot and have it counted.
Several cases centered on whether mail ballots that lack proper dates on return envelopes should be counted. The issue has been under dispute since 2020, producing dueling court rulings that have caused confusion for voters.
One unresolved problem is whether counties are required to provide notice to voters when they plan to reject their mail ballots. A case from Washington County reviewing that matter, stemming from the April primary, is pending before the state Supreme Court.
Additionally, the high court has not ruled on whether rejecting mail ballots for lacking a proper date on the return envelope violates the state constitution. This came up again after the Nov. 5 election when a handful of counties opted to count such ballots, which forced the court to step in and order them not to. However, the court did not address the constitutional question.
On Election Day, the state largely avoided high-profile mishaps — such as a ballot paper shortage in Luzerne County that caused hassles at polling places in 2022 — that would have brought it scrutiny.
The one exception was in Cambria County, where a printing error prevented tabulation machines from scanning some ballots. This forced the county to hand-count some ballots, create duplicates on correctly printed ones that could be tabulated by machines, and order last-minute replacements. Dozens of Pennsylvania counties were also the targets of fake bomb threats, similar to ones seen nationwide, which briefly interfered with voting and ballot counting in some places.
Counties processed mail ballots much faster than in 2020, when a slow count prevented media outlets from projecting winners for several days. New equipment and more experience has helped election departments become more efficient.
One race, for U.S. Senate, took several weeks after Election Day to resolve. Democratic incumbent Bob Casey lost to Republican Dave McCormick by just a few thousand votes. Casey did not concede initially, and the race was so close — within half a percentage point — that an automatic recount was triggered.
Some counties were still wrapping up their original ballot counts and deciding which provisional ballots should be included when the recount began. However, once those tasks were concluded in all 67 counties and it was clear Casey would not make up the deficit, the senator conceded on Nov. 21, and the recount ended before it was completed.
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.
