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People vote on Election Day at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, on November 8.
People vote on Election Day at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, on November 8. (Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO/AP)

Philadelphia election officials voted Tuesday morning to reestablish a process that’s intended to catch double votes – in a move that is likely to slow down reporting of election results from the largest city in this battleground state.

The decision to reinstitute the often-tedious process, known as poll book reconciliation, could focus national attention on Philadelphia if the consequential US Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz is close. 

The process compares mail ballots with poll books from Election Day to ensure people have not voted twice.

The 2-1 vote by the Philadelphia city commissioner early Tuesday follows a lawsuit from a Republican group that alleged Philadelphia was inviting double votes with a plan to scale back on poll book reconciliation. Although Judge Anne Marie B. Coyle ruled against the Republican organization, she also criticized the move by city election officials to change the poll book process as “erroneous.”

A Philadelphia city election official told CNN that the elections board voted to reinstate the process Tuesday out of an abundance of caution in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

The official said they had intended not to use the process because they had not encountered any double votes over the course of the last three elections, and they wanted the process to move along more quickly. 

Although they were not required to reinstate it because of the Republican lawsuit, the official said, but chose to do so to quell any questions that may arise after the fact. They did not want even the perception that they are doing anything wrong, the official said, but they questioned why Philadelphia was the only city to be sued by the Republican group.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Seth Bluestein, the sole Republican on the commission, said that when questions arise about delays in Philadelphia results, it’s because “Republicans targeted Philadelphia … to force us to do a procedure no other county does.”

Bluestein and Lisa Deeley, the Democratic chair of the board, voted to reinstate the procedure. Democrat Omar Sabir voted against it.

The action comes as Philadelphia and other jurisdictions in Pennsylvania grapple with another Election Day issue: The risk of thousands of mail-in ballots being rejected because of missing or incomplete handwritten dates on the return envelope.

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