FL was allowed to process and count mail in votes early (they always deal with a lot of absentee votes b/c many people have their residence there to avoid state

FL was allowed to process and count mail in votes early (they always deal with a lot of absentee votes b/c many people have their residence there to avoid state taxes). Once polls closed they were able to transfer those with the early batches of day of votes. Because absentee was such a big thing this year, many states were also telling the networks/reporters what each batch of counts was made up of (absentee vs. in person). Even in GOP areas, absentee went heavily towards Dem. The GOP legislature in PA denied the SOS request to begin processing absentee early. It was known for weeks that the count would not be done until Friday or possibly the weekend. Because the pandemic has been politicized, many GOP voters saw in person voting as a statement. Dem voters just wanted to vote. There also wasn't really a gradual shift. Day of gets counted more quickly because states use machines that take the the vote directly from the user at the time. Absentee takes longer because the votes are opened, verified (some states check signatures, but I think all make sure the it's not a double vote, etc...), cured, and then the ballot is ran through a flattener then vote counter. I saw a story that this took longer in PA, because many of the votes had been sitting folded up for almost a month by the time they were opened.