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Changes at the polls: what you need to know to make sure your vote counts

Polls are open in Pennsylvania until 8 pm. Mail-in ballots are also due at that time. Postmarks do not count.

A steady stream of people arrived to drop off their mail-in ballots and cast their votes in polling places for Pennsylvania's primary election day Tuesday. However, in most polling locations the long lines visible during the Presidential election of 2020 were gone.

In York County, leaders told FOX43 they counted nearly 100,000 mail-in ballots for the Presidential election. In 2021, the county was expecting 25,564. As of Tuesday morning the county had received 16,016 of those votes. Once again in Pennsylvania, counties were not allowed to begin the process of opening mail-in ballots until 7 am on election day. Overall in Pennsylvania, 800,000 people requested a mail-in ballot.

Important reminders for voters from Pennsylvania's Department of State:

- Pennsylvanians voting by mail-in or absentee ballot must return their ballot by 8 pm to their county election board or to drop-off locations. Postmarks do not count.

- Voters who have not voted by mail ballot can vote in person at their polling place on Election Day. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on May 18.

- Voters who applied for and received a mail ballot and then decide they want to vote in person at the polls must bring their entire unvoted mail ballot packet with them to be voided, including both envelopes. If a voter surrenders their entire mail ballot packet, they will be able to vote a regular ballot at the polls.

- If a voter applies for a mail ballot but does not return it and does not have the entire packet to surrender at the polling place, they may vote by provisional ballot at the polls on Election Day. Their county board of elections will then verify that they didn't vote by mail before counting their provisional ballot.

- Voters who are registered as Republican or Democrat will choose their parties' nominees for seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Superior Court, Commonwealth Court, county Common Pleas Courts, and Philadelphia Municipal Court.


- Also on the party ballots will be a wide variety of county, school board, and local seats such as mayor, city or borough council member, township commissioner or supervisor, magisterial district judges, and precinct election officials.

- All registered voters, regardless of party affiliation, will be eligible to vote on four ballot questions. Three of the questions are proposed constitutional amendments, and the fourth question is a referendum on making municipal fire departments or companies with paid personnel and emergency medical services companies eligible for an existing state loan program. 

In addition, all registered voters in the following four districts, regardless of party affiliation, will be voting in special elections to fill vacancies:

22nd State Senate District (Lackawanna County and parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties)
48th State Senate District (Lebanon County and parts of Dauphin and York counties)
59th State House District (parts of Somerset and Westmoreland counties)
60th State House District (parts of Armstrong, Butler, and Indiana counties)
For complete information about voting in Pennsylvania, visit votesPA.com or call 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772).



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