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Philly is still counting mail ballots and officials say they will continue 24/7

The livestream from the Convention Center shows workers making their way through yellow bins full of ballots, despite incorrect reports that Philadelphia had stopped counting or was behind schedule.

Ballots are counted inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Election Day.
Ballots are counted inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Election Day.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer

No, Philly has not stopped counting mail ballots and is not behind schedule.

Despite reports that Philadelphia has stopped counting its mail ballots or is significantly behind schedule, the livestream from the Convention Center shows workers making their way through yellow bins full of ballots.

City elections officials said they were working to count ballots around the clock, as planned.

“We are doing the canvass, we are not stopping for nobody,” said Omar Sabir, one of three city commissioners, who run elections. “We’re here, we’re counting. The count has not stopped.”

If anything, another elections official said, Philadelphia is ahead of schedule when it comes to tallying mail ballots.

The confusion may stem from national news organizations' unfamiliarity with election results reporting in Pennsylvania. Counties do not always update the state system as often as they update their own websites, and at 11:40 p.m. the state’s website showed only 74,132 votes for Biden and 32,414 for Trump out of Philadelphia.

At the same time, the city’s own website showed 248,931 votes for Biden and 78,136 for Trump.