No 'early voting' in Pennsylvania, but mail ballots will be going out in a few weeks
PITTSBURGH — You may have heard some mistaken national media reports saying Pennsylvania has "early voting" or that it is starting this week. Pennsylvania state election officials and county election offices all say that's not true and are setting the record straight.
"Pennsylvania does not have early voting. But as part of the Act 77, we do have over-the-counter voting, which means when ballots are available, somebody can come into our office, fill out an application, be approved, be handed a ballot. You can either take it with you, or you could vote it on site and then leave it in one of our ballot drop-off boxes," David Voye, Allegheny County elections manager, told Pittsburgh's Action News 4.
As for the significance of the date Sept. 16, that's the deadline for counties to start the job of processing mail ballot applications. That doesn't mean actual voting — and it doesn't mean sending out ballots.
In fact, ballots could not be printed before a court case affecting the content of the ballot was resolved.
https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-early-voting-mail-ballots/62231600