Voter turnout was brisk across the Delaware Valley in Tuesday’s election. When the polls closed at 8 p.m., the candidates and voters were left to wait for the votes to be totaled. And officials have warned that in some cases it may take days.
The high-profile Senate and gubernatorial races that featured nonstop commercials undoubtedly brought people to the polls in this nonpresidential election year.
Kelly Cofrancesco, a spokesperson for Montgomery County, said election officials sent out approximately 133,000 mail-in ballots. She expected about 90 percent of the ballots to be counted by the end of Tuesday with the remainder sometime early Wednesday. There had not been any major problems reported by late in the day.
Montgomery County GOP Chairwoman Liz Havey said, “Turnout is high across Montco in all polls from what we are hearing. (There were) some scanning issues in western Montco but so far no major problems.”
In Bucks County spokesman James O’Malley said, “No major issues so far. We sent out 98,506 mail-in ballots. As of last night [Monday], 82,789 had been returned.”
“Chester County had requests for just under 80,000 mail-in and absentee ballots, and as of last night had received 59,780 back,” said spokeswoman Rebecca Brain. “We will have unofficial results for the in-person voting by around midnight (Tuesday) and will be posting a portion of the mail-in and absentee votes tonight, then will continue to add results in batches throughout tomorrow and possibly into Thursday.”
There were no significant problems to report at any of the polls today, Brain said.
“Today it appears clear that Democrats in Chester County have closed any enthusiasm gap, with strong in-person turnout and a massive advantage in mail-in ballots,” said Charlotte Valyo, Chester County Democratic Party chairwoman. “The polling locations have been operating without significant issues, although there have been situations reported where Republican poll watchers were accused of harassing or interfering with the poll workers. These situations were dealt with quickly and have not had an impact on voting. We are excited to watch the results come in and are confident that Democrats will be elected up and down the ballot.”
Adrienne Marofsky, a spokeswoman for Delaware County said, “The election is going well. No major issues.”
The county sent out 68,000 ballots and has gotten back 53,000 back so far, she said. She did not expect the final results to be in on Tuesday.
Check the Delaware Valley Journal for more election coverage.
