Pa.’s absentee ballot rules mean many arrive latePHILADELPHIA — Comparatively tight deadlines for absentee ballots mean Pennsylvania’s mail-in votes arrive too late to be counted far more often than the national average, a newspaper reported Friday.The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that 4.2 percent of the state’s absentee ballots got to voting offices after the deadline to be counted in the November election, compared with less than 1 percent nationally.The newspaper cites data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission that ranks Pennsylvania second in the rate of missed-deadline rejections, behind only Delaware.Pennsylvania’s voters submitted 187,000 absentee ballots in last year’s general election and 8,700 were rejected, the great majority for missing a deadline.Absentee ballots can be rejected for reasons that include missing signatures or invalid envelopes. Nationally, just over a quarter of rejected absentee ballots are for missed deadlines.The Inquirer said the self-reported commission figures apparently undercounted the number of Pennsylvania’s late ballots by at least 1,400. Bucks County had hundreds of late ballots, but the recommission reported it as having none, as was the case for Allegheny County.Philadelphia had more than 1,000 late ballots, but was listed as having 378. Counts for other Pennsylvania counties appeared to be accurate.Pennsylvania voters cast just 0.6 percent of the total absentee ballots submitted nationwide last fall, but the state accounted for 7.2 percent of all late absentee ballots.By Associated Press