Republicans are frustrated over long lines, early cut-offs for in-person mail voting in Bucks County. It underscores limits of Pa.’s law.

Republican officials in Bucks County are urging election officials to come up with a plan to ensure that each voter who wants to cast their mail ballot in-person is able to before the state’s deadline to request a mail ballot at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

In a Sunday letter to county officials, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and several GOP members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly argued that the county had disenfranchised voters on Saturday when voters who arrived to request a mail ballot at the Doylestown election office were turned away two hours before the county office offering the service was set to close.

“This incident has sent shockwaves throughout our community and is causing individuals to lose faith in our electoral system,” the statement said.

Employees at the Bucks County election office, which was open to voters from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, cut off the line around noon for voters looking to request a ballot, receive it, and return it in one trip.

County officials broke no law by turning away anyone who wanted to file their vote in a single trip. Those voters still have the opportunity to cast a ballot.

The incident followed days of long lines and early cut-offs in Bucks County at their main election office and two satellite offices. It also underscores the limitations of Pennsylvania’s on-demand mail-ballot process — a courtesy program provided by county workers that is more cumbersome than in-person early voting used in other states.

This year the popularity of that voting method has been fueled in part by voters who want to cast a ballot before Election Day but don’t trust the U.S. Postal Service after former President Donald Trump spent years sowing doubt in mail voting. The Republican National Committee’s “swamp the vote” website describes the process as “vote early in-person.”

In an interview last week Bob Harvie, the chair of the Bucks County Board of Elections, said that voters had been arriving at the Bucks County election office asking to vote early and becoming frustrated when they learned they would receive a mail ballot, the only option available before Election Day.

“Our staff is really working tremendous hours, very very hard to try and meet all the needs,” he said. “We can’t meet everybody’s need as quickly as they’d like us to.”

In response to the GOP request, Harvie noted that the county had long sought more resources from the federal and state governments in administering elections and called on lawmakers to put forward proposals to provide resources to support in-person voting.

In a statement the Pennsylvania Department of State said that counties were facing higher than expected turnout for on-demand ballots and that officials “are working around the clock to ensure everyone who is eligible to vote and wants to can vote.”

Some states, like Georgia and Wisconsin, offer in-person early voting that resembles what voters experience on Election Day with voting machines. Pennsylvania does not.

Instead, counties allow voters to visit an election office, request a mail ballot, and fill it in and return it in the same day. In Bucks County it takes about 12 minutes per voter, and those voters work with election board employees who are also responsible for processing mail ballot applications and voter registration applications.

The accessibility of the voting method varies by county, whether they have established satellite election offices (Montgomery County, for instance, has eight), and how many staff members are devoted to providing on-demand mail ballots.

“There’s a lot of work being done behind the scenes in addition to tending to these lines,” Bucks County spokesperson Jim O’Malley said.

Though election officials are required by law to allow those in line on Election Day to cast their ballot, the same requirement does not extend to on-demand mail voting. Voters who are turned away from a line are able to request a mail ballot in person or online and allow county election staff to mail it or cast their ballot in person on Election Day.

But Republicans have argued that on-demand mail voters should be treated like Election Day voters and, at least on Tuesday, the last day to request a mail ballot, be allowed to vote if they are in line by the time the office closes.

In a letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt on Monday, the Republican National Committee urged him to provide additional resources to counties across the state, arguing that voters across the state were being turned away or told that an office was closing early when seeking to cast an on-demand mail ballot.

The letter specifically referenced Gov. Josh Shapiro’s voting experience in Montgomery County over the weekend as the model for the whole state.

“No voter should be turned away, told an office is closing early, or told they cannot be accommodated if they appear during the posted business hours,” RNC attorney Linda Kerns said in the letter.