Watch this strangely soothing livestream of Pennsylvania officials working through the night to count votes

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Philadelphia City Commissioners)

published 4 November 2020

Officials in Georgia might have already gone to bed, but officials in Pennsylvania are sticking to their promise of working steadily through the night until all the votes are counted. "We're planning on running 24 hours a day," Bob Harvie, the Bucks County commissioner, earlier told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Once we start opening ballots, we're going to have different shifts where we're never going to close the doors of the Board of Elections."

You can see for yourself: the Philadelphia City Commission has set up a livestream from the city's Convention Center, where dozens of workers are busy counting the vote. It's strangely soothing to watch — confirmation that democracy is steadily at work:

Even working around the clock, though, it could take days to sort through all the ballots in the state, The New York Times reports. In Philadelphia, officials said that, as of 9 p.m., they'd only counted 75,000 of 400,000 mail-in ballots.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.