Problems at the polls reported as Pa. hosts eventful off-year election

• Emily Previti/PA Post
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  Emily is a reporter for WITF who’s been covering voting and elections since July 2019 as part of her former role with statehouse accountability news organization PA Post. She was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads. Previously, she covered city hall for PennLive/The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), was a watchdog and city hall reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and reported for the Northwest Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  See other articles by Emily Previti for WITF.

John Hastings, regional sales manager with Dominion Voting Systems, explains how the company's auditing system works to officials in Columbia County June 26, 2019. (Emily Previti, PA Post)

New machines put to the test

John Hastings, regional sales manager with Dominion Voting Systems, explains how the company’s auditing system works to officials in Columbia County June 26, 2019. Reports on Nov. 5, 2019, raised concerns about how the same type of machine was introduced to York County voters. (Emily Previti, PA Post)

• The state GOP plans to file a motion for an injunction first thing this morning in York, one of multiple counties where voters experienced delays and other issues with voting machines, according to deputy executive director Charlie O’Neill. O’Neill says the party will pursue similar actions in Cambria, Warren and Montgomery counties as well. Meanwhile, York County officials apologized last night for Election Day problems, attributing them to underestimating how much equipment the county would need at each polling place. Our story is here. Also, The Morning Call has this report on major delays and recount demands in Northampton County.

• Nearly three-quarters of Pennsylvania voters backed the victims’ rights amendment on the ballot. But Marsy’s Law, as the proposal is known, is caught up in a legal fight over its constitutionality. Katie Meyer reports that supporters and opponents are both predicting victory in the courts.

• Smooth sailing, mostly, throughout Election Day in Mercer County as its new voting system was implemented. But when polls closed, I watched the elections office briefly descend into low-grade pandemonium as poll workers called in to say their machines were jamming as they tried to scan absentee ballots. The scanners, which had been working fine all day, had problems in some precincts because the ballots had been folded before voters mailed them in.

• At the end of the night, Director of Elections Jeff Greenburg told me they’ll count the ballots (several dozen, he estimates) on Friday during the county’s public canvass — but doubts the votes will make a difference because margins were substantial in pretty much every race in the county. But Mercer officials might consider whether a larger mailing envelope could fix the issue in future elections. Greenburg said the ordeal took him by surprise because the county’s been using a comparable, earlier model ES&S scanner for absentees without a problem.

Best of the rest

Matt Smith / Keystone Crossroads

Democratic mayoral candidate Eddie Moran gives a speech to supporters gathered Nov. 2, 2019, at Jet Set Restaurant for a campaign event as he is looking to become the first latino mayor of Reading, which has a majority latino population. Moran is also seeking to become the first latino mayor of a major municipality in Pennsylvania’s history. (Matt Smith for Keystone Crossroads)

• Reading voters elected their first Latino mayor, and first Latina and woman to serve as City Auditor. The Reading Eagle’s coverage of the historic night is here. Over in Scranton, a progressive candidate running as an independent won the mayor’s race, ousting the Democratic incumbent. Paige Cognetti becomes the city’s first woman mayor.

• Philly has its first independent city council member: Working Families Party candidate Kendra Brooks, who claimed a seat long held by Republicans in the heavily Democratic city, Billy Penn reports. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney also won a second term handily amid questions about whether he’ll abandon the post early to run for governor in 2022, Max Marin reports for WHYY.

• Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman won the election for county judge, despite controversy over his use of drug forfeiture money and locked in locked in a court battle the county commissioners for forfeiture fund records, LNP reports. Fellow Republican Heather Adams will succeed Stedman as D.A..

• Delaware County, the Philly suburb dominated by Republicans for decades, has an all-Democrat county council and prosecutor. It’s a sea-change that highlights the GOP’s growing problems holding onto suburban voters. The Philadelphia Inquirer makes clear the stakes in its story: “Gaining a majority in county government means control over budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, the ability to set policy, the right to hire, and the overseeing of elections.”

• More results and analysis from around the state: Harrisburg/Dauphin County, Berks County, Bucks County, Centre County, Chester County, Cumberland County, Erie County, Lackawanna County, Lebanon County, Lehigh County, Perry County, Allegheny County/Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Williamsport and York County.

• Just the numbers, courtesy Pa. Department of State.