Pennsylvania is likely to see its highest in-person voter turnout since 2016. What does that mean?

When polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday, officials across Pennsylvania expect more voters to come and cast their ballots in person than in nearly a decade.

More than 6 million voters cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election; The lion's share of that took place in person on Election Day because Pennsylvania had not yet adopted widespread mail-in voting.

But since then, the electoral landscape in Pennsylvania has changed dramatically.

In 2019, the Pennsylvania General Assembly approved no-excuse absentee voting, coincidentally making the crucial change just before the pandemic hit. Postal voting was a method little used by postal voters to one who dominated the 2020 election.

But in recent years, voters have returned to the polls on Election Day. Absentee voting remains a popular option — as of Thursday, more than 2 million voters in Pennsylvania had requested an absentee ballot and more than 1.6 million had returned their ballots. However, that number doesn't come close to the number of mail-in ballots four years ago.

The change will impact both how voters experience Election Day and how campaigns and analysts interpret the results when they are reported.

“A lot of it will depend on Election Day because it's not 2020 and people aren't all going to be voting by mail,” Neil Makhija, a Democrat and chairman of the Montgomery County Election Board, said in an interview about the impact of the Philly suburbs start this month.

With analysts predicting that 2024 could be the highest turnout election in U.S. history, election officials are preparing for more in-person voters than in years.

This means the following:

Will there be longer lines on election day?

Most election officials have said they do not expect longer lines due to higher voter turnout on Nov. 5.

Election officials have deployed new devices at polling places, such as electronic poll books, to help poll workers screen voters and move them through a polling place more quickly.

Lines are most likely to form first thing in the morning as the doors open and voters try to cast their ballot before Labor Day.

Technical problems or an unexpected increase in voters can also lead to longer queues in front of a polling station for a certain period of time.

What impact will high voter turnout have on ballot counting?

More in-person voters will likely mean election officials in Pennsylvania can count ballots more quickly.

In recent years, slowdowns in counting and reporting results have been the result of the long process surrounding counting mail-in ballots under state law.

Election officials in Pennsylvania are not allowed to begin processing mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. This process includes cutting open the ballot envelopes, removing the ballots from the envelopes, flattening the ballots, and scanning them into counting machines.

Counting in-person votes, on the other hand, is much faster because voters use voting machines on Election Day.

Depending on voter turnout and the number of mail-in ballots returned to the election office on Election Day, officials expect to complete counting mail-in ballots within a day or two of Election Day, rather than five days as in 2020 .

Of course, additional ballots, including provisional ballots and foreign ballots, may still be counted after this period.

How will 2024 results be reported?

The leads in election night races, starting with the presidential election, can fluctuate. This is completely normal.

The first votes that counties generally count and report are mail-in ballots received before Election Day and processed between 7 a.m. and polls close.

Registered Democrats accounted for 56% of ballots returned in Pennsylvania on Thursday. Republicans made up 33% of returned ballots. Although Republicans have increased their share of mail-in ballots since 2020, it is still likely that early rounds will tip in favor of Democratic candidates, including Vice President Kamala Harris.

Likewise, the election results reported in the evening and night of Tuesday are likely to lean toward former President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.

The results that are reported Additional mail-in ballots that were received on Election Day will be sent out overnight and in the days following the election. Here too, the Democrats are likely to have a tendency, as they are in the lead overall in terms of the number of postal ballots requested.

How close the race is will determine when news organizations like the Associated Press announce the winner. While it's possible the state winner will be decided Tuesday night, it's also possible it could be days before it's clear who won the commonwealth.

How do I find my polling place in Pennsylvania?

For voters who go to their polling station in person on Tuesday, the polls open at 7 a.m. Anyone in line at their polling station by the time polls close at 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote.

However, in order to vote on election day, voters must show up at their assigned polling station.

Voters can find their assigned polling place on the Secretary of State's website or their county election office's website.