PENNSYLVANIA – A clumsy and time-consuming early voting option in the largest nation presidential battle state it creates frustration, leading to hours-long lines and prompting disenfranchisement claims as voters flock to county offices unprepared to handle the influx.

The confusion is partly the result of a Pennsylvania law passed just before the pandemic and partly from the multitudes of Republican voters heeding their party’s calls and former President Donald Trump to vote early. Trump’s pleas to his supporters to vote ahead of the Nov. 5 election come after he repeatedly attacked early voting forms in previous years.

In the suburban Philadelphia seat of Bucks County, often seen as a political hotbed, voters waited up to three hours on Tuesday, the last day to apply for a mail-in ballot.

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

“Because he told us to vote early. I was just trying to make it ‘too big to handle,'” said Marlene Burns, 52, repeating one of Trump’s standard lines to encourage supporters to vote. “So yeah, that’s why I’m voting on the court and I wanted to have my personal vote.”

The anxiety over early voting is the latest issue over vote in Pennsylvaniawhich has the largest store of electoral votes of any battleground state and is by far the most visited state of this year’s Democratic and Republican presidential tickets. The run-up to Election Day in the state has been marked by numerous battles over mail-in ballots, with some reaching the doorstep of the US Supreme Court.

One culprit in this latest controversy is a law 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 most states, where registered voters can go to a polling place in their county and vote before Election Day.

Instead, in a practice known as “mail-in-demand voting,” Pennsylvania voters can go to their county government offices, request a mail-in ballot, and then fill out an application. That form must be reviewed to ensure the person is an eligible voter and then approved. Once that happens, a ballot must be printed.

It’s a process that can take about 12 minutes per voter, if everything goes well. Voters have the option of filling out the ballot on the spot and handing it in, taking it home, or having it mailed to their home. If they do not complete the ballot immediately, they can return it through the Postal Service or place it in a box.

County election officials say they need more funding to hire staff to help with early voting on demand and are trying to cope with the increase in voters. Compounding the problem is that offices have only one printer specifically designed for in-person advance ballots, which include inner and outer envelopes.

The process and voter demand strained election offices and angered voters.

“It’s an uncertain process for a lot of people because it’s still relatively new and it’s also kind of inefficient,” Bob Harvie, chairman of the Bucks County Board of Elections, said in an interview. “There are definitely changes that need to be made.”

Responding to criticism and misinformation on social media, Bucks County government said every voter in line by 5pm Tuesday will be allowed to request a mail-in ballot. The Secretary of State issued a statement saying he also had this advice for voters: “Please be patient.”

Other counties assured early voters they would have a chance to apply for ballots by the Tuesday night deadline.

It’s a system voters and officials are still getting to know. The 2020 election was marked by an increase in mail-in ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 midterm elections did not see the type of turnout typical in a presidential year.

Harvie said counties need money to help with early voting staff and equipment. 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 each year if they want, instead of being forced to request one every election .

But Pennsylvania’s politically divided state government has remained largely deadlocked over the 2019 election law overhaul.

As the early voting period drew to a close, Republican lawmakers said in a letter to Bucks County officials that they had fielded complaints from voters about the county office being closed over the weekend while people were still in line to to request a postal ballot. In a statement posted on its website, Bucks County said it may need to stop accepting applicants “to ensure all applications are processed by the end of the day.”

Harvie acknowledged confusion about the state’s early voting system.

“When you’re told that, yes, you can go to early voting by somebody, and then you show up and you’re told, well, no, you can’t vote early — you know, the voters aren’t sure. who to believe,” he said.