A clumsy early voting option has baffled Pennsylvania election officials and frustrated voters.

DOYLESTOWN, PA — A clunky and time-consuming early voting option in the nation’s largest presidential battleground state is causing frustration, leading to hours-long lines and prompting claims of disenfranchisement as voters flood county offices unprepared to handle the influx of voters.

The confusion is partly due to a law passed in Pennsylvania just before the pandemic and partly because droves of Republican voters heeded calls from their party and former President Donald Trump to vote early. Trump’s calls for his supporters to vote before the Nov. 5 election come after he repeatedly criticized forms of early voting in previous years.

In Bucks County, a Philadelphia suburb often considered a political bellwether, voters waited up to three hours Tuesday, the last day to apply to vote by mail.

Why the change from four years ago, when relatively few voters tried to apply for early voting in person?

“Because he told us to vote early. I was just trying to make it “too big to fake,” said Marlene Burns, 52, repeating one of Trump’s stock phrases urging his supporters to vote. “So yeah, that’s why I vote in the courthouse and wanted my vote in person.”

Concerns over early voting are the latest skirmish over voting in Pennsylvania, which has the largest number of electoral votes of any battleground state and is by far the top state for Democratic and Republican presidential tickets this year . The lead-up to Election Day in the state has seen numerous battles over mail-in ballots, some of which have landed right on the doorstep of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The culprit behind this latest controversy is a law that the then Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Legislature passed in 2019 in an attempt to expand mail-in voting. They created an early voting system very different from the system in most states, where registered voters can go to a vote center in their county and vote before Election Day.

Instead, in a practice known as “vote-by-demand,” Pennsylvania voters can go to their county government offices, request a mail-in ballot, and then fill out an application. This form must be reviewed to ensure the person is eligible to vote and then approved. Once this happens, you need to print your ballot.

If everything goes correctly, this process can take about 12 minutes per voter. Voters have the option of filling out a ballot on site and returning it, taking it home or having it mailed. If they don’t fill out the ballot right away, they can return it through the postal service or put it in a mailbox.

County election officials say they need more money to hire staff to help with on-demand early voting as they struggle to cope with the surge in voters. Compounding the problem, the offices only have one printer dedicated to early in-person voting, which includes inner and outer envelopes.

The process and voter demands have strained election officials and frustrated voters.

“It’s an uncertain process for a lot of people because it’s still relatively new and it’s ineffective,” Bob Harvey, chairman of the Bucks County Board of Elections, said in an interview. “Changes definitely need to be made.”

Responding to criticism and misinformation on social media, Bucks County government said every voter in line by 5 p.m. Tuesday will be allowed to apply to vote by mail. The Secretary of State’s Office released a statement confirming this and gave voters this advice: “Please be patient.”

Other counties have assured early voters that they will have the opportunity to apply to vote by Tuesday evening.

It’s a system that voters and officials are not yet familiar with. The 2020 election saw an increase in mail-in ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 midterm elections saw turnout that was not typical for a presidential year.

Harvey said counties need money to help with staffing and equipment for early voting. He would also like to see a change in state law that would allow voters to check a box to automatically receive a mail-in ballot every year if they choose, rather than being forced to apply for a ballot each election.

But Pennsylvania’s politically divided state government has been largely deadlocked on modernizing election laws since 2019.

As the early voting period came to an end, Republican legislators said in a letter to Bucks County officials that they received complaints from voters about the county office being closed over the weekend while people were still waiting in line to apply for mail-in ballots. . A statement posted on Bucks County’s website said it may have to stop accepting applications “to ensure that all applications are processed by the end of the day.”

Harvey acknowledged there is confusion about the state’s early voting system.

“When they tell you that yes, you can go and vote early, and then you come and they tell you, well, no, you can’t do early voting – you know, voters are not sure. who to believe,” he said.