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Election day in PA, post your experience voting (Original Post) DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 OP
Loooong lines early today... apcalc Nov 2020 #1
What part of PA? DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #7
Philly burb apcalc Nov 2020 #8
Sounds awesome DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #9
45 minute waiting TEB Nov 2020 #2
3 minute wait Tree-Hugger Nov 2020 #3
My story is very boring FakeNoose Nov 2020 #4
My daughter is in Pittsburgh. bamagal62 Nov 2020 #5
From Beaver county in western PA DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #6
Nice update. thanks PRETZEL Nov 2020 #10
Yes, the county was overwhelmed with mailed ballots DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #12
Yeah, that alot of the counties PRETZEL Nov 2020 #13
Biden was here yesterday at CCBC DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #14
From Wayne County in NE Pennsylvania PJMcK Nov 2020 #11
Took a dinner time cruise around the polls DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #15

apcalc

(4,518 posts)
1. Loooong lines early today...
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 12:40 PM
Nov 2020

Drove by , did not vote, turned in my ballot 2wks ago...
One friend waited 1 hr 30 min, another 45 min
White suburb...

FakeNoose

(35,690 posts)
4. My story is very boring
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 12:48 PM
Nov 2020

I mailed my ballot almost 3 weeks ago, and it was received and recorded the next day.


bamagal62

(3,650 posts)
5. My daughter is in Pittsburgh.
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 12:49 PM
Nov 2020

Her polling location is exactly in between CMU campus and Pitt campus. No line at all. That was 10:30am.

DeminPennswoods

(16,317 posts)
6. From Beaver county in western PA
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 12:55 PM
Nov 2020

Turnout is reported at record levels. This is generally Trump country although the county did go for Gov Wolf in 2018.

I voted around 8AM and had to wait about 40 minutes in line. My precinct is always high turnout, though. It voted at nearly 80% turnout in 2016. I missed hearing what my voter number was unfortunately. The line was caused primarily because last names were divided by A-M and N-Z. The latter had few voters in that category. The line looked like the county, all white and mostly older. I had Trumpers in front and behind me, 1 younger and a middle-aged couple. Once inside the voting went quickly, in and out under 5 minutes.

I asked the election judge if she knew how many absentee ballots and she didn't know because she hadn't had time to look at the list which is normally posted on the wall, but wasn't this time. I stopped and chatted with the guy at the Dem table. He didn't have much hope for the Dem state legislature candidates with which I agree. Before I left, the election judge must have transferred the last names of "M" to the "N-Z" poll book because she came out and announced voters with last names M-Z could now go right in and more people moved out of line to vote.

Then I decided to take a drive around the neighborhoods where Dem turnout usually lags. I was happy to see a line at the first polling place I stopped. There was actually a sheriff's constable outside, but very friendly and thanking voters for coming out. She told me she calculated that there was 1 voter about every 1.5 minutes showing up. She said there'd been a line since the poll opened. There was another person handing out flyers for the Peffer, the 3rd party candidate in PA HD10. She thought the incumbent had shot himself in the foot with his antics using his son that was caught on video and made public a couple weeks ago.

I asked where the other polls were and visited a couple of them. The first was in the local Salvation Army office building. I didn't see a line, but that's easy walking distance for the voters in that precinct.

The other place was in a church. Again, no outside line, but the Dem poll greeters said there'd been a steady stream throughout the morning.

Combined, this is probably a good sign. Trump will win the county, but if the urban areas turnout, it will tamp down his margin which was 16 pts in 2016.

PRETZEL

(3,245 posts)
10. Nice update. thanks
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 01:13 PM
Nov 2020

it'll be interesting to see how they report voting since , if I'm not mistaken, Beaver County was one of the 7 counties that said they weren't going to start counting mail in ballots until tomorrow.

DeminPennswoods

(16,317 posts)
12. Yes, the county was overwhelmed with mailed ballots
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 01:24 PM
Nov 2020

I think they got 38,000. The election judge in my precinct said the usual number is 4,000. Our county election office isn't staffed to review that number of ballots. They want to be available for election day issues. They just don't have enough people to do both.

Don't be surprised if they do not post any vote counts until the mail ballots are counted. That's what they've done in the past. Of course the in person totals will be posted on the door of each precinct and the election board will know them. After polls close and counts are validated, both the Dems and GOP will get a copy of the official counts so they'll know and have a good idea of the final count.

I should add that at the first poll I went to after voting, I was told voters were coming in with their mail ballots to turn them in and then vote in person.

PRETZEL

(3,245 posts)
13. Yeah, that alot of the counties
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 01:42 PM
Nov 2020

just didn't have the resources available to do both. That only in person will be counted tonight does make sense.

That Vice President Biden and the campaign didn't ignore Beaver County most certainly was a pleasant suprise and I think he'll see the benefit of that decision.

DeminPennswoods

(16,317 posts)
14. Biden was here yesterday at CCBC
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 01:46 PM
Nov 2020

(community college) parking lot for a drive-in rally. If I'd have known where they were, I'd have driven down to be part of the crowd.

PJMcK

(22,887 posts)
11. From Wayne County in NE Pennsylvania
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 01:20 PM
Nov 2020

We've been living here in the Catskills since the beginning of March. Although we voted absentee in New York City, we drove past the Cochecton Town Hall where the local polling place is located to see what was going on. The large parking lot was full at 10:30 this morning but we didn't see a line out the door.

This was Trump country in 2016 but this cycle has seen an equal number of Biden/Harris signs. The vibe is PA will go for Biden.

DeminPennswoods

(16,317 posts)
15. Took a dinner time cruise around the polls
Tue Nov 3, 2020, 07:00 PM
Nov 2020

I visited this morning to see if there was an evening crush of voters, but none of the polls had lines although my precinct was still getting voters every few minutes. I was pleasantly surprised to see one poll in town, a Dem area, was also still getting voters.

I did a rough estimate of my precinct. It had 1724 registered voters in 2016 and probably still a similar amount in 2020. In 2016, 1359 votes were cast for a turnout rate of 78.9%. When I stopped by around dinner time to chat with the Dem poll greeter, I asked a guy coming out what number voter he was. Turned out he worked for the county and was delivering forms so the board could nullify absentee ballots allowing the voter to vote in person. The Dem committee guy said he'd seen quite a few people coming in with their absentee ballots so they could vote in person. Before I left I asked another exiting voter what number they were as was told 900 something. I was also told there are about 38,000 total mail ballots in the county. Dividing that by the total number of precincts yields a little under 300 mail ballots/precinct.
My estimate would be roughly the same turnout as 2016 which is probably not a good sign for Rs.

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