The election staff in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, has reportedly taken Thursday off with roughly 35,000 ballots left uncounted.
The staff is off for “administrative work,” according to The New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel, who has been covering the 2020 election.
Allegheny County Elections Board Director of Communications Annie Downs clarified to the Daily Caller that the staff had not taken the day off.
“That is 100% false,” Downs told the Caller. “The staff is not off.”
“The county has counted every ballot that it can count up to this point,” she added. Many ballots had not been counted because of a court order, and others were not counted because some of the ballots “would not scan appropriately” or had “sufficiency issues,” according to Downs.
Allegheny County, PA still has 35,413 uncounted mail-in ballots, but elections staff is taking today off for “administrative work” and will not resume count until Friday. “I can’t get an answer as to why,” says @bethanyhallam, a member of county elections board.
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) November 5, 2020
“Allegheny County, PA still has 35,413 uncounted mail-in ballots, but elections staff is taking today off for ‘administrative work’ and will not resume count until Friday,” Gabriel originally tweeted. “‘I can’t get an answer as to why,’ says @bethanyhallam, a member of county elections board.” (RELATED: Pennsylvania Judge Hands Trump A Win In Election Lawsuit- Will Allow Campaign Officials To Observe Ballot Counting)
29,000 of the 35,413 ballots left uncounted are from people who received the wrong ballot originally, according to an email sent to the election board from the county, Gabriel reported. Other ballots are “unscannable ballots & some missing dates or illegible signatures.”
Gabriel later deleted his original tweet and clarified that his earlier report was “missing important context.”
“My earlier tweet missing important context,” he reported. “The delay in counting is required by state rules and court orders. No one’s taking the day off. My apologies to hard working Elex staff.”
My earlier tweet missing important context. The delay in counting is required by state rules and court orders. No one’s taking the day off. My apologies to hard working Elex staff. Here’s more detail https://t.co/GbhTKzVhfv https://t.co/DYmMpcbtvF
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) November 5, 2020
Councilwoman Bethany Hallam claimed on Twitter that roughly 29,000 of the leftover ballots cannot be counted until Friday due to a court order.
Remember that ~29k of these can’t be counted until tomorrow due to a court order, but there are about 5K-6K that were not scannable and also not being counted today! https://t.co/V1F9BLKFUy
— Bethany Hallam (@bethanyhallam) November 5, 2020
The election staff is reportedly addressing these issues in the “administrative work.”
Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to reflect that the Allegheny County Elections Board has clarified that the ballots have not been counted because of a court order, because they had “sufficiency issues” or because they were not scanned properly.