Associated Press: Election officials scramble to count ballots in key states

ATLANTA (AP) — Election officials in several key states furiously counted ballots Wednesday as the nation awaited the outcome of the race between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden and braced for possible recounts and legal challenges.

Unlike in previous years, states were contending with an avalanche of mail ballots driven by the global pandemic. Every election, what’s reported on election night are unofficial results, and the counting of votes extends past Election Day. This year, with so many mail ballots and close races in key states, counting every vote was expected to take more time. …

An estimated 1 million ballots have yet to be counted in Pennsylvania, and the Trump campaign indicated it would be taking legal action to temporary halt vote tallying.

State election officials had warned repeatedly in the lead up to Election Day that it would take days to count because of a massive surge in absentee ballots brought on by the pandemic and a recent change in state law that meant an excuse was no longer needed to vote absentee. Slowing the process down was the fact that local election officials could not begin processing and scanning ballots ahead of Election Day, as most states did. …

“This is an hour by hour, maybe minute by minute situation in Pennsylvania,” said Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. “We will be prepared, however, to do whatever we need to to make sure every eligible vote gets counted.”