Don't count on PA election results on Nov. 8, secretary of state says. Here's why.

Pennsylvania voters: Don't expect to see unofficial election results on Nov. 8.

State legislators approved Act 88 earlier this year, which provided $45 million to counties for election administration and requires that they start precanvassing ballots at 7 a.m. on election day and continuously count mail ballots beginning at the close of the polls.

However, the legislation "didn't implement the one reform that would have had the biggest impact on allowing Pennsylvania to have results sooner, providing for pre-canvassing of mail-in ballots before election day," Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman said Tuesday.

"We anticipate this means that once again Pennsylvania will not have unofficial results on election night," she said.

Chapman's remarks came as she discussed the election administration process and what has changed since the primary. She expects that unofficial results will be available a few days after the election.

"This delay does not mean anything that nefarious is happening," she said. "It's simply means that the process is working as it's designed to work in Pennsylvania. And that election officials are doing their job to count every vote."

Elections:Four Republican PA lawmakers used mail-in ballots after signing a pledge against them

U.S. Supreme Court rules on undated ballots

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed a lower court ruling that allowed mail ballots without a date to be counted, according to Reuters.

The Pennsylvania Department of State has issued guidance to counties to count mail ballots that are missing a date or have the wrong date, Chapman said. The department will review the latest court ruling, she said Tuesday morning. and "we will evaluate and update guidance as necessary."

By the afternoon, the department issued a news release that all counties are expected to include undated ballots in their official returns. It cited that the Commonwealth Court held that both state and federal law "prohibit excluding legal votes because voters omitted an irrelevant date on the ballot return envelope."

“Today’s order from the U.S. Supreme Court vacating the Third Circuit’s decision on mootness grounds was not based on the merits of the issue and does not affect the prior decision of Commonwealth Court in any way," Chapman said in the news release. "It provides no justification for counties to exclude ballots based on a minor omission, and we expect that counties will continue to comply with their obligation to count all legal votes.”