Ever wonder why election results from Florida are typically available just hours after the polls close on Election Day while in Pennsylvania, which has 9 million fewer residents than the Sunshine State, results might take days?

The answer is pre-canvassing. Election officials in Florida can begin opening and processing mail-in ballots 22 days before polling places open, although mail-in totals cannot be released until 30 minutes after the polls close.

In Pennsylvania, mail ballot processing cannot begin until 7 a.m. on Election Day, slowing the overall count. Local election officials have long asked for more time to process mail-in ballots, but legislation has stalled in the General Assembly.

On Wednesday in Harrisburg, the state House passed a bill that would allow pre-canvassing to begin seven days before Election Day. The measure now goes to the Senate.

The legislation has been endorsed by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, which argues the current system pulls personnel away from doing other important Election Day tasks.

The association’s executive director, Lisa Schaefer, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that county election bureaus now are forced to oversee what amounts to two elections on the same day, managing scores of polling stations while at the same time processing thousands of mail-in votes.

“Adding that pre-canvassing time prior to Election Day is one of the things that would help counties with election administration,” Schaeffer said. “We could focus on one, and then on the other.”

Florida instituted pre-canvassing as part of a host of reform measures following the meltdown of its voting systems in the contentious 2000 presidential election.

Pennsylvania’s experience in 2020, when it took four days to complete a count that confirmed Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump, ought to be incentive enough to finally authorize pre-canvassing.

Such delays leave an opening for those who would cynically promote conspiracy theories that call the integrity of our voting systems into question.

The pre-canvassing bill, which passed in the Democratic-controlled House on a party-line vote, will undoubtedly face opposition in the Republican-dominated Senate. Several GOP senators have already expressed opposition to any election reform bill that does not contain a voter ID requirement.

But tying a common-sense measure like expanded pre-canvassing to a contentious partisan issue like voter ID is almost certain to torpedo the bill.

Senate leaders should heed the wide bipartisan support for pre-canvassing and not sacrifice the chance to streamline and strengthen our vote-counting process in the interest of politics.

Thirty-eight states already allow pre-canvassing in some form, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. With the growing popularity of mail-in voting, it’s time for the Commonwealth to do the same.

— Scranton Times-Tribune