A Delco committee member has been detained on suspicion of trying to influence voters amid the mail-in ballot confusion. Here’s what you need to know.

Tensions over long lines as voters seek to vote by mail on demand began to simmer Monday when a GOP committeewoman from Marple Township was detained and charged with disorderly conduct at the Delaware County Government Center after officials said she talked to residents waiting to vote.

Val Biancaniello, 55, was “disruptive, belligerent and trying to influence voters in line,” according to a statement Tuesday from a county spokesman.

Biancaniello’s detention comes amid frustration over long lines, shortages of supplies at offices and voter turn-backs across Pennsylvania as counties face high demand for on-demand voting, driven in part by voters who want to vote early but are uncomfortable casting ballots. mail after former President Donald Trump spent years sowing doubt about the system.

The incident escalated after some line residents complained about Biancaniello’s behavior to Park County Police Department officers who were on scene to provide security for the government center.

Department officers asked Biancaniello to leave, the spokesman said. When she refused, she was handcuffed and taken to a side room.

After some time, she was released and given a short certificate.

Biancaniello did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

In a post on X, Biancaniello said she was responding to an election official who told people waiting in line they would have to wait two hours to receive their ballots, and said those instructions amounted to voter suppression.

She said she believes she did nothing wrong and plans to fight the charges against her.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley shared a video of Biancaniello in handcuffs at X and said he encouraged voters to stay in line. He said the incident was evidence of “left-wing voter suppression” even though state law does not require counties to allow voters to request mail-in ballots.

What you need to know about voting by mail

The deadline to request a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania, either by request or mailed to a voter’s home, is 5 p.m. Tuesday. Voters in Bucks County and elsewhere were frustrated that county election officials closed lines before allotted voting hours and turned away voters who were trying to request and cast ballots. Mail ballots must be returned to county election offices by 8:00 pm on Election Day.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt urged counties to allow voters to stand in line by 5 p.m. Tuesday to request their mail-in ballots. But his guidance is not binding, and counties have no legal obligation to allow those voters to vote.

“Please remember that election offices are not polling places and that if you do not apply for a mail-in ballot by 5:00 pm today, Pennsylvania’s 9,153 polling places will be open for 13 hours on Election Day,” Schmidt said during Tuesday’s daily briefing. .

Schmidt reminded voters that they can also apply for a mail-in ballot online and return it in person by Election Day. The Vote by Mail application can be accessed here and local election office addresses and contact information can be found here.

James Blair, Trump’s top campaign official, wrote Tuesday afternoon that voters should stay in line and should contact campaign lawyers if they are not allowed to vote.

Pennsylvania voters can vote early in person only by requesting and receiving a mail-in ballot in one trip. The process takes about 12 minutes per voter, and access varies by county depending on resources and the number of election offices in the community, Bucks County officials said. This is a courtesy procedure provided in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, but is not required by law.

The process is not subject to the same laws as in-person voting on Election Day, where voters standing in line when polls close must be allowed to vote.

On Monday, the RNC sent a letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt urging him to provide additional resources to counties and arguing that voters should not be turned away when they try to request an on-demand mail ballot.