How to Deal With Inevitable Election Day Problems in Philadelphia
Keep this extensive guide handy on Election Day.
There could be many Election Day problems in Philadelphia as you choose between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and candidates for other offices. (Photo illustration by Ticia Albano/Getty Images)
It’s finally here: Election Day 2024. And along with the big decisions that we have to make come billions of complaints about Election Day problems in Philadelphia. Okay, so maybe not billions of complaints. But many. Philadelphia is, after all, the place where bad things happen, right? So we put together this handy guide to common complaints and potential Election Day problems in Philadelphia — and what you can do about them.
There’s a poll worker wearing a Kamala Harris T-shirt while standing near my voting machine.
That’s called electioneering, and it’s forbidden. There can’t be any campaign materials within 10 feet of the door to the room where the voting machines are or in the room itself. One of the more prominent violations of this came in 2012 thanks to a mural of Barack Obama inside a polling place in Northeast Philadelphia. Poll workers had to cover him up. You can report instances of electioneering to the District Attorney’s task force at 215-686-9641.
People are trying to hand me political fliers outside my polling place.
We always hear complaints about this. Some people mistakenly think that’s illegal. But it’s fine — again, unless those people are within 10 feet of the door to the room where the voting machines are located or in the room itself. Same goes for people holding up campaign signs. As long as they aren’t in the voting room or within 10 feet of the door to that room, there’s nothing illegal about it. So let’s say you vote in a classroom inside a school. People can distribute campaign materials and hold up signs even inside the school — just so long as they are not in the classroom or, yes, within 10 feet of the doorway to said classroom. There’s a lot of confusion over this point, so keep it in mind before you start making a stink.
I’m being intimidated at my polling place!
Voter intimidation is something we’ve become more and more concerned with over the years. And, given recent history, it’s more than reasonable to be concerned that voter intimidation will be one of the Election Day problems in Philadelphia in 2024. So let’s talk about voter intimidation.
Once, a Philly Mag staffer faced a strange series of questions about his ethnicity and opinions on immigration posed by a poll worker when he went to vote. He reported the incident to the city, because he felt that the poll worker was trying to intimidate him and might similarly intimidate others.
A bible on display at a polling place during a previous election (Photo courtesy of Jess Conda)
During one Philadelphia election, some voters felt intimidated by the presence of a Bible on the table at the polling place. And who can forget the infamous case of the New Black Panther Party members who stood outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008, one of them holding a nightstick?
Voter intimidation can be very subjective. Somebody yelling at you or physically threatening you at a polling location is pretty clearly a yes for voter intimidation. But other situations, like, say, a Bible on a table, may not be as clear. When in doubt, if you think somebody is being intimidating, report it. If you see any activity you believe is dangerous, threatening or intimidating, officials say to call 911. Then call the Philadelphia District Attorney’s special voting task force at 215-686-9641.
Someone has an AR-15 over their shoulder outside my polling place.
With the images we saw on our TV screen in the wake of the 2020 election and the rhetoric leading up to this one, there will no doubt be armed citizens showing up across America at polling places on Election Day. Whether that will happen in Philadelphia remains to be seen, but don’t forget the time that armed men decided to “protect” the Christopher Columbus statue in South Philadelphia.
Here are the basics when it comes to carrying a gun around on Election Day.
There is no Pennsylvania law explicitly banning guns inside of polling places. That said, Pennsylvania law explicitly prohibits gun owners from carrying a firearm (concealed or otherwise) into certain types of buildings, including schools. So if your polling place is inside a school — as is the case with many polling places — no guns are allowed. That’s inside the polling place.
Outside … well, things get a little tricky. There’s nothing that prevents someone who is licensed to carry a concealed weapon from doing so outside of a polling place in Philadelphia or anywhere else in the state. And outside of Philadelphia, anyone who is legally able to own a gun can open carry (i.e., carry a rifle on their shoulder) in public, no permit of any kind required. Within the boundaries of Philadelphia, though, only a person with a carry permit can open carry in Philadelphia, though the practice is generally discouraged. In other words, a guy standing outside of your polling place with an AR-15 over his shoulder may not be breaking any gun laws by doing so, assuming he has a carry permit.
All that said, if you feel intimidated by the presence of an armed individual on Election Day, see the section above on voter intimidation and do what you need to do.
It’s 7:15 a.m., and my polling place still isn’t open. Aren’t polling places in Philadelphia supposed to open at 7 a.m.?
Yes. Polling places are required to open at 7 a.m. sharp, statewide. But sometimes, that doesn’t happen. During one election in Philadelphia, a polling place inside a church in Northwest Philadelphia didn’t open on time because the janitor who had to open the building was running late. The city actually got a court order to break into the church. If your polling place isn’t open on time, call the City Commissioners office at 215-686-1591.
I showed up at 7:55 p.m., and the line is super-long. Am I going to be able to vote?
Yes! As long as you are in line by 8 p.m., poll workers must let you vote. If they try to lock that door at 8 p.m. with voters still in line, raise holy hell. Peacefully and respectfully, of course. And call the City Commissioners at 215-686-1591.
A poll worker just told me my signature in “the book” doesn’t match what’s on file.
I sign my name in all kinds of ways. But when you go to vote, your “registered” signature is on file in “the book” (which is now electronic!). An election worker can dispute your signature. If one does, there’s a process in place that involves you filling out an affidavit confirming your identity. And remember: You can always vote by provisional ballot if they don’t want to let you use the machine.
With a provisional ballot, you must provide your name, address and date of birth. The city will later determine the voter registration status and count the vote when appropriate. You can track your provisional ballot online to see if it was counted. Any person wanting to vote can request a provisional ballot for whatever reason at any polling location anytime while the polls are open. If workers won’t give you one or say they don’t have them, call the City Commissioners office at 215-686-1591.
My polling place is out of “I VOTED” stickers!
There’s no law saying that the city has to provide you with an “I VOTED” sticker, but that doesn’t mean city officials don’t hear complaints when there are no stickers to be found. (Because election workers clearly have nothing more pressing to attend to than getting you your precious sticker.) Staffers from the City Commissioners’ office do, in fact, go out to replenish supplies when a polling place runs out. So don’t worry, oh-so-politically engaged Instagrammer: You’ll get your sticker, now available in a bunch of languages. But if you feel the need to pick up the phone to complain to anyone about a lack of stickers, you might need to reevaluate your life.
They’re making me show ID to vote. I thought that was illegal.
So here’s the deal with voter ID. If you’ve never voted at your polling place before — maybe you just registered to vote for the first time or maybe you moved from a different county or state, or maybe you just moved a few blocks away and your polling location has changed — you need to produce ID. Otherwise, you absolutely do not. And ID doesn’t mean a driver’s license. Your voter registration card counts. So does a utility bill, bank statement, or paycheck. If you can’t produce anything that poll workers will accept as ID, insist on casting a provisional ballot.
But now they’re saying I need photo ID.
Hear me and hear me now: You do not need to show photo identification. If a poll worker insists on seeing photo ID, call the City Commissioners at 215-686-1591.
They let this guy vote for his wife, who is home sick with the flu. Is that legit?
Nope. That’s technically voter fraud, and examples like that do come up. The guy has lived in the neighborhood for 60 years; all the election workers know him and his wife. What’s the harm in letting him press the buttons for her while she’s home sick in bed? Well, it’s illegal. Of course, that’s not the nefarious kind of voter fraud that we tend to hear allegations about. But it’s illegal. You can report allegations of voter fraud to the District Attorney’s task force at 215-686-9641.
The machine I voted on didn’t work correctly.
There have been all sorts of reports over the years of machines malfunctioning or just completely breaking down. The city has technicians who will be dispatched to fix a voting machine or replace it if it can’t be repaired quickly. If your voting machine doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, speak with a poll worker immediately and call the City Commissioners at 215-686-1591.
That said, it’s also important to remember that many, many claims about voting machine malfunction have been dubious at best. I’ll never forget the time in 2016 when a voter tried to claim that the machine was forcing him to vote for Hillary Clinton when all he really wanted to do was cast a vote for Donald Trump. His video “proof” went viral … and was quickly debunked. Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.
A few uniformed cops are hanging out at my polling place. Is that weird?
The answer is maybe. Generally speaking, cops are prohibited from being at polling places unless they have come there to vote. The exception to this is if the police are there responding to a call to the location. For instance, if you call to report voter intimidation and the cops show up to investigate, they are allowed to be there for that. If you’re unsure whether the cops are supposed to be there, call the District Attorney’s task force at 215-686-9641.
They’re telling me I’m not in the book.
Sometimes, people are simply at the wrong polling place. And sometimes, people show up never having actually, you know, registered to vote. You can check your voter registration status and verify the location of your polling place (those locations do sometimes change!) using this state-run website. If you can’t sort out the problem on the spot, again, the provisional ballot is your friend. You do not need to be “in the book” to fill out a provisional ballot.
I received a mail-in ballot but have decided to vote in person. Can I do that?
100 percent yes. If you still have your mail-in ballot and return envelope, bring those items to your polling place and surrender them to the Judge of Election. You’ll have to sign an affirmation, and once you do that, you can vote on the machines. If you don’t have your ballot and that return envelope, you can vote by provisional ballot.
If you have other questions not answered here, you can contact the nonpartisan election protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE.
