Somerset County voters' main issue: Making sure their advanced voting will be counted
The Somerset County Elections Office is always a hot bed of activity during elections. This year is no different.
It appears from the questions offered by the voters, their main concern about tomorrow's election is making sure their advanced voting, which in Pennsylvania is in the form of absentee and mail-in ballots, is returned in time to be counted, according to Somerset County Voter Elections & Registration Director Tina Pritts.
"We have received 4,678 absentee/mail-in ballot requests so far," she said. "This number is more than we received for the 2022 primary, but considerably less than the 2020 presidential."
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In Somerset County, there are 31,489 residents registered as Republicans and 12,435 as Democrats for a total of 48,846.
Some registrations are new since the primary, Pritts said. Voting registration is comparable to the last midterm elections, but the exact numbers are not yet available.
There are no local races on the ballot in this election.
The polls
There is one small change in the polling locations for Tuesday voters. Conemaugh Township No. 1 was moved from the gymnasium to the auditorium because the Conemaugh Township High School will be hosting a playoff volleyball game tomorrow.
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The county has enough poll workers. There is no concern about the poll watchers. "We have had poll watchers for past elections," Pritts said.
New face
The voters have had most of their attention pulled into the hotly contested governor and national senator races in this election cycle, especially since there are no local races to choose. But for those delving into the state house and senate races, there is at least one more candidate who will be on the voters' ballots.
In the heavily Republican district, where the state house and senate races started with the Republican incumbents unopposed for those seats, at least one position now has a Democrat name on the ballot for that slot.
According to the county's Democrat Party Chairwoman Paula Shively, the real story for Somerset County in this election is the placing of one of her party's candidate on the ballot as a challenged to one of those Republican incumbents running for another term.
Sydney Hovis obtained enough write-in votes in the primary to be placed on the ballot as the Democratic nominee in the state's 32nd Senate District. Patrick Stefano was unopposed as an incumbent Republican nominee in the state senate race.
"The woman is really dedicated to this area," Shively said.
"I am truly amazed a woman in her twenties, a full-time graduate school student with three kids under 5, who is so smart and so confident," she said.
Somerset County Republic Party Chairman Guy Berkebile was out of the area on business and could not respond to a request for comment on the concerns of the Republican voters in the county.
Republican nominee Carl Walker Metzgar is still running unopposed to represent Somerset County in the state House of Delegates.
However, since Hovis obtained the 300 plus votes to be placed on the ballot, Pritts is not aware at this time of any write-in candidates for either race.
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Reminder
The polls open tomorrow at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.
"Please be courteous and respectful to the poll workers," Pritts said.
Any issues, problems and questions should be addressed directly to the Somerset County Election Office at 814-445-1549, she said.
Keep track of the results
Daily American will have an update on the election results at www.dailyamerican.com. Some final results will probably be available around 10 p.m.
The final results of the election will not be available until after the computation board meets and certifies it, which will be about Nov. 18, Pritts said.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Somerset County voters' main issue: Making sure their advanced voting will be counted
