How to Deal With Inevitable Election Day Problems in Pennsylvania
From voter intimidation to malfunctioning machines to polls that aren't open.
Voters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Election Day 2022 / Getty Images
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With the midterm elections fast approaching, now is a good time to start coming up with an Election Day plan if you are going to show up at the polls in person. (You can, of course, still vote by mail!) Yes, you need to know where to go to vote. (Go here to figure that out.) Yes, you should familiarize yourself with the ballot. (Download here.) But you should also prepare yourself for all of the various things that can go wrong on Election Day – and what you can do about them. For that, we give you this handy guide.
There’s a poll worker wearing a Josh Shapiro 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. In Philadelphia, you can report instances of electioneering to the District Attorney’s task force at 215-686-9641. Outside of Philadelphia, go here.
So I can’t wear my red MAGA cap to the polls?
Rules about buttons, shirts, clothing, and other political attire do not apply to voters — just poll workers. Wear your MAGA hat. It’s a free country.
A poll worker made a mark on my ballot, and I heard that means my vote will be disqualified.
We’ve seen numerous versions of the following post on social media in advance of Election Day. Here’s one:
A very reliable good friend of mine just finished the poll worker training, and she texted to this to me. When you are checking in at the polls and they happen to write anything on your ballot before they give it to you to put in the voting machine…a letter, a checkmark, a letter star, an R or a D any writing of any kind… It will cause your ballot to be disqualified. Please forward this to everyone you know. Make sure poll workers do not write on your ballot.
This has been completely and thoroughly debunked. It is simply not true. The only reason that a mark made on your ballot by a poll worker would disqualify your ballot is if it made your ballot illegible.
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 continue to be a problem. 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 / Photograph 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? That quickly became national news.
Voter intimidation can be 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.
Someone has an AR-15 over their shoulder outside my polling place.
It wasn’t so long ago that armed men decided to “protect” the Christopher Columbus statue in South Philadelphia with AR-15s. And given the rhetoric across the country these days, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that you’ll see a gun on Election Day, especially depending on where you live in Pennsylvania.
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, which seems like a perfectly valid reaction, 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 Pennsylvania 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 in Philadelphia, call the City Commissioners office at 215-686-1591. Outside of Philadelphia, contact your county election board.
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.
There this “poll watcher” claiming I shouldn’t be allowed to vote!
There is, in fact, a process in place at your polling place where another person can challenge your right to vote. The people who can challenge are other voters who are legally inside the polling place, election officials, poll watchers, and overseers.
That said, the only legal grounds to challenge your right to vote at the polls on Election Day are your identity (as in, you are not who you claim to be) or that you don’t live in the district where you are trying to vote.
If someone challenges your right to vote, the judge of elections at your polling place must decide whether the challenge is valid or not. You can provide evidence of your identity and residency to clear up the matter. Or, another voter from your district can confirm your identity and where you live by signing an affidavit. And no matter what, you can fill out a provisional ballot.
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 in Philadelphia). 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. Officials 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 if you are in Philadelphia. Outside of Philadelphia, contact your county election board.
An “I Voted” sticker in Philadelphia / Photograph courtesy of Philadelphia City Commissioners Office
My polling place is out of “I VOTED” stickers!
There’s no law saying that the polling place has to provide you with an “I VOTED” sticker, but that doesn’t mean 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 election 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 on what will be a very busy Election Day in Pennsylvania, 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 if you are in Philadelphia. Outside of Philadelphia, contact your county election board.
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.
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. Technicians will come out 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 then report it.
That said, it’s also important to remember that many, many claims about voting machine malfunction have been dubious at best. We’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. And that was well before AI and deepfakes were everywhere. If you see something on the internet, be highly skeptical.
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. Otherwise, it is fair for you to be concerned.
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.
