Voting gets underway in Pennsylvania, as counties mail ballots, open satellite election offices

HARRISBURG — Voting has begun in earnest in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, as counties increasingly begin mailing out ballots, offering over-the-counter voting in election offices and opening other avenues to voting.

In Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, voters have returned about 15,000 mail-in ballots, said Seth Bluestein, who sits on the city’s three-member election commission. That’s about 10% of the 150,000 ballots that were already mailed, Bluestein said.

Meanwhile, the city has opened seven of 10 planned satellite election offices to operate seven days a week.

Allegheny County began hosting over-the-counter voting in the lobby of the county office building on Monday and said people who applied for mail-in ballots have started receiving them in the mail this week.

Montgomery County, the state’s third-most populous county, has started mailing out ballots and, on Friday, it will open eight satellite election offices where people can register to vote, apply for a mail-in ballot or complete a mail-in ballot on the spot. On Saturday, Montgomery County is planning to launch a mobile voter services van.

In Bucks County, the state’s fourth-most populous county, mail-in ballots began going out this week, and ballot drop boxes will start opening up Monday, a spokesperson said.

In Centre County, the elections board voted to open a satellite election office on Penn State’s campus.

The Department of State lists 20 counties where ballots are available. That includes Union County, where Commissioner Jeff Reber said over-the-counter voting began Monday and mail-in ballots should go into the mail on Friday from the county’s printing vendor.

All told, more than 1.45 million voters have applied for a mail-in ballot ahead of the Nov. 5 election, according to data from the Department of State. Of those applicants, Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two-to-one.

Nearly 9 million people have registered to vote, almost the same number as in 2020’s presidential election.

Luzerne County, meanwhile, placed large rocks Tuesday outside a building that houses the offices of its bureau of elections to “fortify security” ahead of the election, county officials said.

The rocks are intended to thwart a vehicle attack on the building, and were among the security measures recommended by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo had requested an assessment by the agency to identify potential vulnerabilities and make suggestions to harden security.