After a hearing on Thursday, a judge signed an order from the Court of Common Pleas Friday afternoon. 

A lawsuit was originally filed by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party against the Erie County Board of Elections over numerous issues related to mail-in voting ballots.

ElectionIQ, the Akron-based printing company who has been blamed for the mishandling of mail-in ballots during the case, was ordered to promptly deliver all proper materials to the Erie County Board of Elections in person according. The vendor was given a deadline of 5:30 p.m. to complete this task according to the court order.

Erie County Clerk Karen Chillcott told Erie News Now that ElectionIQ failed to deliver nearly 18,000 ballots to five different precincts before the court order.

The Board of Elections also has the discretion to utilize overnight delivery with a company of their choosing to accommodate the remaining 919 out-of-state voters who had issues with mail-in ballots. That number was provided by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Email addresses of these voters were also given to both Democratic and Republican parties to make contact.

The court order also alters the hours of the election office through Nov. 4:

 - Weekdays (Friday and Monday): 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

 - This weekend (Saturday and Sunday): 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

"This particular lawsuit was beneficial for the election board and both parties," said Tom Talarico, attorney for the Board of Elections. "What we have been doing [has been] accepted by the court, and now ordered by the court. The procedures that we have are designed to reach as many voters as we can, and there's a lot of different voters out there."

Talarico stated that more-than-enough provisional ballots have been ordered by the Board of Elections to accommodate voters.

Talarico also mentioned that nearly 12,000 voters in Erie County still have either not received or not returned their mail-in ballots, a number which he says is constantly changing. Chillcott disagrees with the estimate.

"That number actually reflects the number of ballots that have not been returned to the courthouse," Chillcott said. "We usually see that number balloon in the last few days, right before the election. We think that number is not accurate, but we're doing everything we can to make sure that that number is closer and closer to the number that we should have here for us."

If you have any questions about mail-in ballots or voting, click on the link to our Erie News Now Voter Guide.