PENNSYLVANIA (WHTM) — Pennsylvania’s 67 counties must provide their certified election results to the Pennsylvania Department of State by Monday, Nov. 28.
Those results will then go to Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman to review before the official certification of the vote. On election night, Chapman said she would certify state and federal office results “soon after” Nov. 28.
On Monday, the Luzerne County Election Board failed to certify their results after two members voted against certification and one abstained, citing wanting answers to election day issues after a paper ballot shortage.
The Department of State says they have reached out to Luzerne County officials regarding the board’s decision. They are also reviewing information submitted by Allegheny County and did not have any further comment in that matter.
The department is aware of several recount petitions filed in multiple counties across the commonwealth. Counties have a statutory duty to certify returns. Only in the event of a legally valid and properly filed recount petition may a county withhold certification of the election returns for an office that is the subject of the recount. Counties should certify races that are not subject to such a properly filed recount petition. This partial certification process has been done before and allows the Secretary to certify those races not impacted by legitimate recount petitions.
Pennsylvania Department of State
The Department of State added that once they receive certified results from all of the election districts they will review and compile official returns for the Secretary of State to certify.
There is no specific statutory deadline for when the secretary must certify the election results, however, the department says they are “expected to certify returns to Congress by mid-December.”
According to unofficial results from the Pennsylvania Department of State, more than 5.3 million people voted in Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial election with Democrat Josh Shapiro projected to succeed outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf.
Unofficial results on Monday morning showed Shapiro with 56.47% of the vote, making him the first candidate for governor in the commonwealth’s history to receive 3 million votes. Republican Doug Mastriano received more than 2.2 million votes in his projected loss to Shapiro.
Governor-elect Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor-elect Austin Davis will both be sworn in on Jan. 17, 2023.
This year’s governor’s race projects to be the seventh consecutive race (dating back to 1994) in which a gubernatorial candidate has won by at least 200,000 votes. It will also be the first time Pennsylvania has had consecutive Democratic governors since 1955-63 and the first time there have been three consecutive terms of Democratic governors since 1938-48.
In Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, unofficial results on Monday showed Democrat John Fetterman receiving more than 2.7 million votes, or 51.23%, over Republican Mehmet Oz’s 46.35% support which equated to more than 2.4 million votes.
Since Pennsylvania voters got the right to vote for their U.S. Senators in 1914, there have been six races that have come within 100,000 votes, most recently in 2016 for Pat Toomey, who Fetterman is expected to replace.
The Department of State reported more than 1.4 million mail-in and absentee ballots were requested going into the Nov. 8 election. Approximately 83% of ballots were returned to county boards of election by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
