For the first time, Pennsylvanians will be able to apply online for absentee ballots starting next week, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday, a move that could help some of the thousands of registrants whose votes go uncounted each year and never realize it.

Absentee ballots would still be sent to voters by mail and returned either by mail or in person, but allowing people to request the ballots online, rather than by mailing in an application, could shave a few days off the state's process.

The state's absentee-ballot deadlines, as set in the Election Code, provide a tight window for voting absentee: Applications are due by a week before an election, and the ballots themselves have to be received by county elections officials by 5 p.m. the Friday before the election.

That gives three days between the deadlines for requesting a ballot and for having it returned. And mail takes time to get from one point to the other and can sometimes encounter problems.

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Mr. Wolf's announcement doesn't change the law itself — earlier this summer, he vetoed a Republican elections reform bill that included expanding absentee-ballot deadlines — and it's unclear how lawmakers will respond. (In 2015, he similarly implemented online voter registration.) Those deadlines are also being challenged in court by national and state civil rights groups.