{"id":190048,"date":"2026-05-12T11:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190048\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:05:08","slug":"how-to-vote-in-pennsylvania-if-a-mail-ballot-does-not-arrive-on-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190048\/","title":{"rendered":"How to vote in Pennsylvania if a mail ballot does not arrive on time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania voters had until 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 12 \u2013 just one week before the primary \u2013 to apply for a mail ballot.<\/a><\/p>\n

With that deadline so close to election day on May 19, voters who requested a mail ballot within the allotted time frame could find themselves without one by election day.<\/p>\n

More: What does Trump’s crackdown on mail-in voting mean for Pa.?<\/a><\/p>\n

The deadline to apply for a mail ballot is routinely one week before an election. The time frame was established by Act 77 of 2019, which permitted no-excuse mail voting for the first time in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

So how does someone who planned to vote with a mail ballot vote without one?<\/p>\n

Voters who requested a mail ballot and do not receive it on time may vote by provisional ballot at their polling place.<\/p>\n

If a ballot is received ahead of the election but without enough time to mail it, voters can hand deliver their ballots to their county elections office or a designated drop box or satellite location.<\/p>\n

More: Before Pa.’s May 19 primary, the envelope date fight explained<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Election.<\/p>\n

Election. Pennsylvania main-in ballot instructions<\/p>\n

Voters who received an absentee or mail-in ballot may vote in person on Election Day with a regular ballot if they bring their mail ballot materials with them to be surrendered.<\/p>\n

As of May 7, more than 840,000 Pennsylvania voters had already requested a mail ballot to vote in the May 19 primary election, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.<\/p>\n

Mark Walters is the USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania statehouse reporter. Reach him at mwalters@usatodayco.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Requested a mail ballot that’s late in Pennsylvania? Vote this way<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania voters had until 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 12 \u2013 just one week before the primary \u2013 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5497,53361,28,30,29,8561,16110],"class_list":["post-190048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-election-day","tag-mail-ballot","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-voters","tag-provisional-ballot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}