Fact Checking Claims About Pennsylvania Voting Deadlines

A judge did not allow for votes that arrived by November 14 to be counted.

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(Photo by Dan Honda/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times/Getty Images.)

A viral Instagram post, sharing a screenshot of a tweet, claims: “This just in: Pennsylvania Judge allows ballots to count that are received up until November 14. This is unconstitutional.” 

This is a false claim. 

The deadline for Pennsylvania ballots was not changed to November 14. According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots was Election Day, November 8, at 8 p.m.. 

Members of the military and overseas civilian voters “must affirm” that they mailed their ballots no later than 11:59pm the day before Election Day, and the County Election Office has to receive these ballots “no later than 7 days after Election Day by 5pm.”

Ellen Lyon, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State told The Dispatch Fact Check that this claim was “not true” and is “disinformation.”

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

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Comments (7)
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  1. GChaucer

    I write Intending no disrespect and mostly (mostly) tongue-in-cheek, but ...

    The 1st century Roman satirist Juvenal wrote: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

    In this context, you might translate this as: "Who will fact check the fact checkers themselves?"

    So: who fact checks you? And who fact checks the person who fact checks you? And who fact checks the person who fact checks the person who fact checks you? Etc.

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  2. Peter Pommes

    Looks like the first sentence of the tweet is right (or close to it) and the second one wrong. She just could have said that.

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    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    I've got to say this isn't a very persuasive "fact-check."

    I'm not licensed in Pennsylvania, but I followed with dismay and occasional disbelief the struggle between the PA legislature and PA state supreme court over the 2020 election. And the PA state supreme court beclowned itself on this issue then.

    A competent fact-check would include that history, and would discuss what's happened at the legislative and court levels since then, and include links.

    "We called the people in charge and they said there is nothing to this" is on its face an inadequate fact-check. This one doesn't get a passing grade, and it pains me to say so.

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  4. Natty Bumpo

    Thanks for this from another Pennsylvanian. I was aware of the +7 day limit for military ballots due to my monitoring of two close state legislative races. The PA 142 and 151 races are very close and will likely be decided by the military and provisional ballot counts.

    The Ds need one of these to control the lower chamber and slow down the R constitutional amendment train (which bypasses the governor and goes direct to plebiscite after votes in two consecutive sessions). I should note that the Rs are bundling four different changes in one vote, some of which are not really related. They also seem to get these on the ballot during primary or off year voting, so the plebiscite occurs during a very low turnout vote.

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    Mister D

    You don't think the StopTheStealers would just take her word for it, do you?

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  7. Michael Hartley

    It has to feel like whack-a-mole. As a Pennsylvanian, I thank you for dispelling these lies.

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