What voters can expect with ballot processing Election Day

FOX 29's Shawnette Wilson has more.

PHILADELPHIA - On the eve of a historic election, you may be wondering what to expect. With many factors in play, experts say it's unlikely we’ll be watching numbers in hopes of a winner Tuesday night in the race for the White House.

"We're going to have to be patient," Pat Christmas, policy director for the Committee of Seventy, told FOX 29.

He says many factors are in play here once polls close at 8 p.m. across Pennsylvania.

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"For those polls that can actually close and there's no longer a line of voters, the results from the voting systems can be brought to county elections offices and can be uploaded. So by midnight tomorrow we're going to have the in person count, almost all of it by the end of the night.”

But Christmas says there's still the issue of processing more than 3 million requested mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. It will take a lot of time.

"Counties cannot start processing those until 7 o'clock in the morning tomorrow. So one of the goals in Philadelphia was to process 100,000 mail-in ballots by midnight. They may or may not get there. The other large counties also have hundreds of thousands of ballots to process and it could take us two or three days. It could take us till Friday to count all of those," said Christmas.

Advice for those who still need to vote by mail-in or at the polls?

"Do get them in in person at a drop box or at a satellite election office. Do not put your ballot in the mail at this point,” he said. “If you're not allowed to use the voting machine for whatever reason, vote a provisional ballot. One of the golden rules for tomorrow is make sure no one leaves without casting a ballot," he said.

Christmas stresses the importance of handing in your mail-in ballot at this point at a drop box or satellite election office. He says even if it's postmarked tomorrow and it arrives Friday it may be too late and those ballots could be set aside and put in jeopardy by the U.S. Supreme Court. Do not mail-in at this point.