John Fetterman wins Senate race and Josh Shapiro elected Pa. governor as Democrats take both statewide races

Democrats won both statewide races in Pennsylvania’s consequential and closely contested election Tuesday.

Josh Shapiro won his bid for governor after pledging to fend off Republican “extremists” who he said threatened to roll back rights for voting, gay marriage, and access to abortion.

And in the Senate race, John Fetterman, the former mayor of Braddock who cast himself as a working-class hero who would fight for forgotten communities, is projected to defeat Republican opponent Mehmet Oz, a longtime celebrity doctor who pitched himself as a conservative problem solver.

Here’s more of our coverage:

— Staff report

Democrats were poised to win four open seats on Philadelphia City Council in special elections held Tuesday, bringing the city’s legislative body back to its full 17-member complement after a series of resignations.

In the race for two open at-large seats representing the entire city, Jimmy Harrity, the political director of the state Democratic party, and Sharon Vaughn, a ward leader and longtime fixture in City Hall, held large leads late Tuesday night over Republicans.

Quetcy Lozada, a Democrat and Council aide, was well positioned to win the 7th District seat representing parts of North Philadelphia and Kensington, replacing her former boss, María Quiñones-Sánchez, who’d held the seat for 14 years.

And Anthony Phillips, a nonprofit leader, was set to win the 9th District seat representing parts of North of Northwest Philadelphia, which had for six years been held by Cherelle L. Parker.

» READ MORE: Philly City Council results: Democrats poised to sweep four open seats in special elections

— Anna Orso

Struggling to claw back power, Republicans pushed state by state early Wednesday to break the Democrats’ one-party hold on Washington in a grinding, dragged-out fight to upend President Joe Biden’s once-lofty agenda.

After all the polls were closed, the Democrats’ fragile grasp on power remained at risk. With the narrowly held House and an evenly divided Senate, the party faced a new generation of Republican candidates — among them political newcomers, including deniers of the 2020 election and some extremists inspired by Donald Trump handily winning some seats.

But races stayed tight, and Republicans ran into stiff competition in their march across the country, dashing hopes for the sweeping gains they had promised, particularly in the House. Instead, they inched toward what could be another narrowly split Congress.

As the mood grew tense, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to become speaker if his party takes control, vowed to win the majority as he addressed a crowd of supporters well past midnight in Washington.

“We are expanding this party,” McCarthy said, calling out the races won so far. “The American people are ready for a majority that will offer a new direction that will put America back on track.”

— Associated Press

The Associated Press late Tuesday into early Wednesday projected victories for incumbent U.S. Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon, Brian Fitzpatrick, Madeleine Dean, and Chrissy Houlahan.

Dean, a Democrat, was projected to win reelection to the U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District.

Scanlon, also a Democrat, was projected to win in the 5th District.

Fitzpatrick, a Republican, was projected to win reelection in the 1st District.

Houlahan, a Democrat, was projected to win in the 6th District.

— Robert Moran

John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor and mayor of Braddock, who stayed in the race despite experiencing a stroke shortly before the primaries, will be Pennsylvania’s next U.S. senator, the Associated Press projects.

The Democrat, 52, defeated Mehmet Oz, a surgeon and television personality, in the most expensive Senate race in the country this year. The candidates spent a combined $312 million to win a seat that could decide which party controls the Senate.

In a speech just after 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, Fetterman, wearing a black hoodie, credited his victory to a campaign strategy that sought to cull votes for him even in Pennsylvania’s deep red counties.

”We jammed them up,” he said. “I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue but we did what we needed to do.”

Oz received Trump’s endorsement in the primary, but pivoted to run as a centrist.

Fetterman will replace Pat Toomey, who is retiring after 11 years in the Senate. The results means both Pennsylvania Senators will be Democrats. Fetterman, more frequently seen in a hoodie than a suit jacket, ran as a candidate blue-collar Pennsylvanians could relate to.

The race was vicious at times. Fetterman attacked Oz, who has a home in Bryn Athyn, as an out-of-touch New Jersey resident who parachuted into Pennsylvania solely for the campaign. Oz accused Fetterman of being a soft-on-crime extremist, and ran ads highlighting Fetterman’s halting performance in their sole debate in October. Fetterman is continuing to recover from the May stroke and has some difficulty communicating.

Fetterman served as mayor of Braddock for 13 years, and has been Tom Wolf’s lieutenant governor since 2019.

He described his campaign as a fight for underdogs, and obliquely referenced his own struggles to recover from a stroke six months ago when he said the campaign was a win for people recovered from adversity.

”This race is for the future of every community all across Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said. “For every small town or person who got left behind. For every job that’s ever been lost. For every factory that’s ever been closed.”

As a Senator, Fetterman said he would prioritize raising the minimum wage, union rights, abortion rights, and access to health care.

» READ MORE: John Fetterman defeats Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s Senate race

— Jason Laughlin

Philadelphia voters on Tuesday passed two ballot measures that will create a permanent aviation department within city government and tweak the city’s civil service regulations to expand employment opportunities.

Voters historically almost always approve ballot questions, and this Election Day was no different.

Philadelphia’s $400-million-a-year aviation department has long been nested within the Department of Commerce — an unusual arrangement for an agency tasked with overseeing two airports and balancing the third-largest departmental budget in City Hall.

» READ MORE: Philly voters approve ballot measures to create aviation department, expand city workforce pipeline

— Max Marin

A gleeful John Fetterman took the stage just after 1:15 a.m. in a black hoodie, grinning widely.

”I’m so humbled, thank you so much,” he said.

Fetterman credited his victory to a campaign strategy that sought to cull votes for him even in Pennsylvania’s deep red counties.

”We jammed them up,” he said. “I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue but we did what we needed to do.”

He described his campaign as a fight for underdogs, and obliquely referenced his own struggles to recover from a stroke six months ago when he said the campaign was a win for people recovered from adversity.

”This race is for the future of every community all across Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said. “For every small town or person who got left behind. For every job that’s ever been lost. For every factory that’s ever been closed.”

As a senator, Fetterman said he would prioritize raising the minimum wage, union rights, abortion rights, and access to health care.

— Julia Terruso and Jason Laughlin

John Fetterman declared victory early Wednesday, even as major news outlets have yet to call the race in his favor.

The state’s lieutenant governor tweeted at 12:57 a.m., “It’s official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. We bet on the people of Pennsylvania - and you didn’t let us down.”

The tweet came shortly after MSNBC called the race in his favor. The Inquirer relies on Associated Press projections before reporting a candidate’s victory, and so far Wednesday morning the wire service had not called the race.

Fox News also projected a Fetterman victory.

Fetterman, 52, is in a close race with surgeon and television celebrity Mehmet Oz. As of about 1 a.m., he held a lead over Oz of just over a percentage point. If Fetterman does indeed win, the victory could be key to maintaining a Democrat majority in the U.S. Senate.

— Jason Laughlin

Republican candidate Bob Healey says he’s waiting for results from Mercer County, despite AP call for Rep. Andy Kim.

“Today has been an amazing day for America and Democracy,” he said in a statement. “As with every election, total vote tabulation requires patience in order to fully see the outcome of the race. We are eager to see the rest of the vote results pour in from Mercer County over the next few days.”

Mercer county was the scene of an election glitch as voting machines were down and required manual tabulation. There were 43,000 outstanding votes in Mercer, according to AP results.

— Amy Rosenberg

Josh Shapiro, a former Montgomery County commissioner and the state’s attorney general, will be Pennsylvania’s next governor, the Associated Press projects.

He defeated State Sen. Doug Mastriano, of Franklin County, who ran a hard-right campaign that railed against COVID-19 restrictions and “wokeness,” and called trans issues “the sexualization of our children.” Shapiro’s election marks the first time since 1950 the same party has won three consecutive gubernatorial races in the state. In his victory speech, Shapiro framed his election as a vote against extremism.

“Opportunity won. A woman’s right to choose won. The right to organize here in Pennsylvania, that won. Your right to vote won,” Shapiro said to supporters at Montgomery County’s Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. “In the face of all the lies and the conspiracies and baseless claims, you also ensured tonight that truth won right here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

The Democrat’s victory is a relief to voters who feared how Pennsylvania’s Republican-dominated legislature might curtail abortion rights if one of their own was in the governor’s mansion. Shapiro has said he would block any attempts to restrict abortion rights.

No Democrats challenged Shapiro in the primary, allowing him to hoard money for the general election, and he has since outspent Mastriano. In just the past two weeks, Shapiro was slated to spend $4.2 million in television ads, compared to Matriano’s $393,000.

Shapiro, 49, has spent three-decades in government, including work as a Capitol Hill staffer and state representative. He was elected twice as attorney general. In that office, he oversaw a 2018 grand jury report on the child sexual abuse committed by more than 300 Catholic clergy. Along with other state attorneys general, he reached a $26 million settlement for lawsuits against pharmaceutical firms alleging they contributed to the opioid epidemic. He also collaborated with the U.S. Justice Department to end a large mortgage lender’s redlining practices.

While his opponent sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, Shapiro defended Pennsylvania’s secretary of state against challenges to President Joe Biden’s victory. Expanding Voter rights became a major platform in his campaign. He has said he would support same-day voter registration, automatic registration when a person gets a driver’s license, and in-person early voting.

» READ MORE: Josh Shapiro wins in the high-stakes Pennsylvania governor’s race

— Jason Laughlin

Incumbent Brian Kemp will likely remain Georgia’s governor, reports show. Though the race has not officially been called yet, Abrams conceded to Kemp in their high-stakes rematch Tuesday night according to The New York Times.

A win for Abrams would have been historic, representing the state’s first Black woman governor. Kemp’s reelection came with promises to Republican supporters that he would combat inflation and maintain his conservative stances on abortion and gun access.

— Emily Bloch

With Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race too close to call, GOP nominee Mehmet Oz took the stage at about 11:30 p.m. to thank supporters and offer words of optimism about his chances.

”When all the ballots are counted, we believe we will win this race,” Oz told a crowd of several hundred at the Newtown Athletic Club in Bucks County. “We’ve been closing the gap all night.”

Supporters streamed out of the venue after Oz spoke, a similar scene to May, when Oz sent his backers home from his party at the same venue before results were final in the GOP primary.

After a recount, Oz prevailed over David McCormick in that contest. He is now neck-and-neck as votes continue to be counted in his race against Democrat John Fetterman.

— Sean Collins Walsh

Josh Shapiro, a former Montgomery County commissioner and the state’s attorney general, took a victory lap late Tuesday, though a key media outlet had not yet declared him the winner in Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race.

The Inquirer relies on Associated Press projections before reporting a race’s winner, and as of 11:37 p.m., the wire service had not projected Shapiro the winner. Shortly after 11 p.m., though, Fox News, CNN and NBC had, however.

At 11:28 p.m., Shapiro took the stage at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Montgomery County to define his victory as a vote against extremism in Pennsylvania.

”All across this commonwealth you chose to take off the red jersey and the blue jersey and wear the Pennsylvania jersey,” he said to exuberant supporters.

Shapiro defeated State Sen. Doug Mastriano, one of the most far-right candidates running in the nation’s elections this year.He introduced his wife, Lori, and thanked Austin Davis, who will be Pennsylvania’s first Black Lieutenant Governor. He reiterated the themes of his campaign by listing what voters supported by sending him to the governor’s mansion.

”Opportunity won. A woman’s right to choose won. The right to organize here in Pennsylvania, that won. Your right to vote won,” he said. “In the face of all the lies and the conspiracies and baseless claims, you also ensured tonight that truth won right here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

— Jason Laughlin

Josh Shapiro declared victory in his bid for governor in swing-state Pennsylvania on Tuesday, where he pledged to fend off Republican “extremists” who he said threatened to roll back rights for voting, gay marriage, and access to abortion.

NBC, Fox News, and CNN named him the winner. The Associated Press had not called the race when Shapiro took the stage at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center near Valley Forge National Park in Montgomery County, after 11:25 p.m.

”Let me begin by simply saying ‘Thank you, Pennsylvania,’” Shapiro said, before crediting the support of his family. He described his campaign as a listening tour, where he heard the dreams and worries of people across the state. “They want a real opportunity for good schools, safe communities, and an economy that gives everyone a shot.”

— Chris Brennan and William Bender

A half hour after Republican Doug Mastriano declared that “this movement is unstoppable,” Fox News called the Pennsylvania governor’s race for Democrat Josh Shapiro.

Few in the room seemed to notice or immediately react to the large checkmark Fox had placed next to Shapiro’s name on large screens in the hotel ballroom in Camp Hill, just outside Harrisburg.

Christian rocker Danny Gokey returned to the stage for a poorly-timed second set and tried in vain to pump up a crowd that seemed to have thinned out a bit and lost some energy.

To make matters worse, his voice suddenly got raspy.

“I’m losing my voice, so I need you guys to help me sing,” Gokey said.

It is unclear when Mastriano will address his supporters. CNN and NBC have also called the race for Shapiro.

— William Bender

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, 40, held off challenger Bob Healey to win a third term in New Jersey’s Third Congressional District base in Burlington County.

The Associated Press called the race shortly after 11 p.m.Healey, a punk rocker turned executive in his family’s Viking Yacht Company, parlayed more than $4 million of his family’s money in his unsuccessful bid to upset Kim.

The two, who both live in Moorestown and voted Tuesday about a mile apart, poured a combined $10 million into the race, Kim’s third contest against a self-funding multi-millionaire.

While the Third District was redrawn to skew more Democratic, losing Ocean County’s Republican and coastal voters, the new district included about 330,000 new voters in Monmouth and Mercer Counties whose Democrats were arguably not as familiar with Kim.

— Amy Rosenberg

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican elected four years ago as a Democrat, easily won a third term, defeating Democrat Tim Alexander in deep South Jersey’s Second Congressional District.

The Second District includes all of Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland and Salem Counties and portions of Gloucester and Ocean counties. It was redrawn this year to reinforce the incumbent Republican.

The Associated Press projected Van Drew, a former dentist from Dennis Township, the winner over Alexander, a former detective with the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s office and, more recently, a civil rights attorney. Alexander also worked as a prosecutor for the Philadelphia District Attorney.

Van Drew’s switch to the Republican Party, and an accompanying pledge of loyalty to then-President Donald Trump, his vote against certifying the results of the 2020 election, his votes against abortion rights, and his hewing to hard-right Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Green did little to dampen the base of enthusiasm he has honed over four years as a congressman and before that, a state Senator.

Alexander was unable to raise more than $471,000, and according to figures compiled by AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending, his campaign spent virtually no money on ads of any kind, other than $1,500 for a banner plane ad that flew over beaches on Sept. 10.

He was endorsed by a wide swath of unions and politicIans as well as Collective Future, a group that works to elect Black candidates.

Van Drew raised about $3 million. He spent just $133,785 on advertising, according to AdImpact, running ads on local talk radio and a billboard on the Black Horse Pike, with the tagline: “Jeff Van Drew: A Strong America.”

Alexander’s campaign’s tagline, apt in the sprawling 2nd Congressional District in deep South Jersey where even Democratic voters Tuesday said they knew little about Alexander, was “Wake up everybody.”

— Amy Rosenberg

Lackawanna County — home to Scranton — holds a symbolic place in Pennsylvania politics, and it’s giving Democrats some early hope in the crucial Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz.

That’s because Fetterman appears to be outperforming Scranton’s own Joe Biden.

With 94% of the vote counted, Fetterman had 57% of the vote in the Northeastern Pennsylvania battleground. Biden won 54% of the vote there in 2020, and that was considered a pretty strong success after it had swung significantly toward Donald Trump and the GOP in 2016.

That’s a solid sign for Democrats — though of course it remains early and it’s only one piece of the picture. But it’s one prominent example of an early trend: In the places that have counted more than 90% of their votes, Oz is often running behind Trump’s share of the vote and Fetterman is running ahead of Biden’s.

There are several major caveats at this stage, perhaps none bigger than this: Oz has bet big on the Philadelphia suburbs, and aims to outperform Trump with moderate voters in those places, where many more votes are to be had.

The race overall remains close: Fetterman was leading 50% to 47% as of 11 p.m., tight enough to still swing either way.

It’s way too early to say who will win. But from the early portion of votes counted, Democrats are the happier bunch.

— Jonathan Tamari

The polls have closed in Luzerne County where one in five of the county’s voting machines didn’t come equipped with the right amount of paper.

Common Pleas Judge Lesa S. Gelb ordered polling places to stay open in the county until 10 p.m.Silvia Edwards, a first time judge of elections stationed at the Dorrance Township Municipal Building, said the stressful period of time when voters had to fill emergency ballots while more paper was delivered won’t deter her from doing the job again.

”Most of the people understand and they didn’t wait too long,” she said of the 20 minute wait.

At Hazleton City Hall, Norman Tarantino only had one of his machines with no paper and he was able to keep lines moves with his three remaining machines until the paper restock — one machine would die later in the day. He said he was more stressed for others who were texting for paper.

“I had paper at my house,” said Tarantino, “I was like should I get it?”

At the Lake Township Municipal Building workers said the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections never delivered more paper, so they went to the store to get printer paper and no one waited because of the shortage. Poll workers said not many people came in after 8 p.m.

But at 9:55 p.m. a couple burst through the doors.Upon exit, the woman sheepishly said, “We have six kids,” before hopping in the car to return to them.

— Ximena Conde

Community activists and volunteers pulled together today to help almost 200 people cast their votes after residents discovered their long-time polling site had been closed with little notice from the city.

It started two weeks ago when Samm Pheiffer, voting engagement director of Positive Women’s Network USA — a national membership organization of women living with HIV — went canvassing in the 11th ward in North Philadelphia. She noticed hardly any resident, even long-time voters, knew their polling place, Vincent G. Panati Recreation Center, would be closed on election day.

Pheiffer said when she told residents they were to vote at the Apartments at Allegheny on 19th Street and Allegheny Avenue or even further away at Rhodes School, about a mile away.

“They were like in shock. They had no idea. Many had been voting [at Panati] for generations. There were very few that were aware and those that were were committeepeople,” she said.

Alarmed, Pheiffer contacted the City Commissioner’s office and pushed for clear signage at the Panati site but said when she arrived at 6:45 a.m. she found two signs, one with a wrong voting address that she had to correct.

That’s when the voting activist sprung into action. Pfieffer called Jazahn Hicks and Nicole Pressley of UU the Vote — a non-partisan program of the Unitarian Universalist Association — who had originally set up to canvas the neighborhood around the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center.

In turn, Pressley, Field and Programs Director, sent out an urgent text message to their network asking for volunteers. Several showed up and throughout the day shuttled voters to their proper polling place.

For the advocates, the lack of communication and voting resources from the city was a form of voter suppression. “It should be truly alarming for anyone who cares about democracy,” said Pressley.

And by 8 PM, although a voting emergency had been averted, no one was happy. Positive Women’s Network Policy Director Kelly Flannery called the incident disappointing. “It was a blatant failure of the city.”

“We happened to be in the right place at the right time and that is not the way democracy should function,” said Jazahn Hicks, National Campaign Director.

— Lynette Hazelton

At 10 p.m., with the Rocky theme playing, Doug Mastriano took the stage in the grand ballroom at the Penn Harris Hotel in Camp Hill.

Joined by his wife, Rebbie, and State Rep. Carrie DelRosso, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, he thanked his supporters and predicted a victory.

”We’re going to take this fight all the way to Harrisburg, just across the river,” Mastriano told an exuberant crowd. “We’re going to change American history right here, right now, this day. It’s going to be fantastic.”

Less than half of votes had been counted and there was no projected winner in the race.

— William Bender

We might be in for a days-long wait for Pennsylvania election results, a la 2020. Or not. It’s complicated.

Most Pennsylvania votes will be counted on election night, with the vast majority tallied by sometime Wednesday. That will leave just small batches of votes left to count across the state in the following days.

But if Pennsylvania’s high-stakes U.S. Senate race is as close as expected, the outcome could hinge on those last votes.

And that could put a national spotlight on Philadelphia in particular.

City officials voted Tuesday morning — as polling places opened — to reinstate a time-consuming and labor-intensive process for catching double votes that will slow how quickly they can report results. That shift, which came in response to a Republican lawsuit, threw a wrench into what was nevertheless still poised to be a faster vote count than two years ago.

» READ MORE: How long will it take to get Pa. election results? It depends. Here’s what you need to know.

— Jonathan Lai

Election Day went smoothly, Pennsylvania’s top elections official said, calling it “a success with minimal issues.”

”In a very dynamic environment, Pennsylvania once again executed a free, fair, and secure election,” Leigh M. Chapman, the acting secretary of state, told reporters shortly after 9 p.m.

The biggest issue was Luzerne County’s paper shortages at polling places, Chapman said. Those shortages meant voters had to use paper ballots instead of the voting machines as county and state elections officials scrambled to supply the polling places. A county judge extended voting at all polling places in the county until 10 p.m.

”We also had a handful of typical Election Day incidents at individual polling places in the other counties,” Chapman said, “such as a few polling places opening late, power outages, and a gas leak. They were quickly handled.”

Chapman emphasized that the vote count will take time to complete as counties report in-person precinct returns and the tallies of mail ballots.

That count will take days before being largely complete — and will not be final and official until nearly three weeks after Election Day.

”Election officials in all 67 counties are well aware that the eyes of the nation are on the Keystone State tonight, and they are counting as quickly as they can. But they are also prioritizing accuracy over speed, as they should,” Chapman said. “So we are asking voters, candidates, and the media to be patient as we await results.”

— Jonathan Lai

Two Philadelphia Democrats are projected to hold their seats this election, according to the Associated Press.

The AP called the Pennsylvania 3rd District for Dwight Evans with 14% of the expected vote. Evans has been in Congress since 2016, representing a district that stretches through most of Philadelphia west of Broad Street. He spent 18 terms in the Pennsylvania House before becoming a U.S. Representative.

The AP also projected Brendan Boyle will return to Congress in the 2nd District with 12% of the expected vote. Boyle first went to Washington in 2014, and represents Northeast Philadelphia and North Philadelphia east of Broad Street. He also served in the Pennsylvania House for six years.

— Jason Laughlin

Sporting a Make America Great Again hat at the election results watch party for Mehmet Oz, Newtown resident Nick Paragano said he was backing the GOP Senate nominee because he has promised to work with Democrats in Washington if he is elected.

”He seems to want to work the other side, which is a good thing,” Paragano, 25, said at the event at the Newtown Athletic Club, where hundreds of Oz supporters were beginning to amass as early returns came in.

Paragano, who owns a landscaping business, said he is a centrist Republican and that his top issues were the economy and inflation.

On inflation, Paragano said he was tired of the explanations coming out of Washington.

”You can point the finger left and right, but the bottom line is it’s bad, and we’ve got to fix it,” he said.

He said Democrat John Fetterman didn’t appear fit to serve as senator after watching the candidates’ only debate, in which Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in May, struggled to speak clearly.

— Sean Collins Walsh

U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross was elected to a fifth term in New Jersey’s First Congressional District centered in the Democratic strongholds of Camden and Gloucester Counties.

Shortly after 9 p.m. the Associated Press projected Norcross the winner.

Norcross, an electrician by trade and former head of the South Jersey AFL-CIO, faced a familiar challenger in Republican Claire Gustafson, a former member of the Collingswood school board, whom he defeated last time around.

While Norcross was considered the heavy favorite — the district last elected a Republican in 1972 — there has been less certainty in South Jersey politics since the upset of former State Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Norcross ally, by Republican truck driver Edward Durr in 2021, and a closer than expected win that year by Democratic Gov. Philip Murphy.

Durr had raised just $10,000.

Norcross spent about $2.9 million in his campaign, up from $1.1 million in 2020, including running television ads. Gustafson posted an ad on social media she said also ran on cable, criticizing Norcross for his political connections: “When your big brother’s the political boss, you can do what you want,” she said in the ad, referring to Democratic power broker George Norcross, the insurance executive and brother of Donald.

— Amy Rosenberg

The 9 p.m. poll closures mean it’s time to turn our attention to races in states including Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New York.

In New York, the governor’s race between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin is expected to be tight.

A win from Zelda would upset two decades of Democratic representation in the governor’s mansion while a win from Hochul would mark the state’s first elected woman governor (she was appointed last term).

Toss-up states like Wisconsin will also be in the public eye as more races are called.The remaining states with open polls are:

Closing at 10 p.m. EST

Closing at 11 p.m. EST

Closing at 12 a.m. EST

Closing at 1 a.m. EST

— Emily Bloch

Victor Perez, 54, happily took a cup of piping hot ginger tea from a van of volunteers with the Democratic candidate for the 116th Legislative District Yesenia Rodriguez.

In between sips, Perez, president of Casa Dominicana de Hazleton, stood in front of the Hazleton Southside Fire Station working social media channels to remind the after work crowd the polls would be closing at 10 p.m. because of a paper shortage across the country. He said he wasn’t taking any votes for granted and he wanted to get stragglers to the polls.

”We’re focused on a Hispanic vote in favor of Hispanics,” he explained in Spanish. “Republicans have tried to confuse the community but the GOP ticket is for the Trump agenda and the Lou Barletta agenda.”

Perez and other Latino voters said they have not forgotten Barletta’s time as mayor. He famously passed a 2006 law that punished those who hired or housed undocumented immigrants. The law was eventually blocked by a federal judge but Barletta’s argument for it still stings. He said the influx of immigrants coming into the city in the early aughts were responsible for rising crime and draining social services.

”We turned Hazleton from carbon into a diamond,” said Perez. “We’re a hard working community that invites development, not crime or drugs.”

Vivian Francisco, 49, echoed Perez at City Hall where she cast her ballot. She came to Hazleton in 2005 from the Dominican Republic and she likened the modern Republican slate of candidates as an extension of Barletta’s attitude.”We’re not the minority anymore,” she said in Spanish. “We want them to feel our numbers and hear our voices.”She was especially excited to have Rodriguez, a fellow Dominican running for office.

— Ximena Conde

As midterm election results trickle in, Tuesday evening has already seen a night of firsts including Congress’ first Zoomer.

According to the Associated Press, Democrat Maxwell Frost won his seat in Florida’s 10th Congressional District, making him the first member of Gen Z elected into Congress.

Other firsts include Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders winning her race for governor, marking the state’s first woman elected to the role.

Wes Moore, a Democrat, will become Maryland’s first Black governor and Maura Healey, who won her Massachusetts gubernatorial race will become the first woman and first openly lesbian politician elected governor of the state. Healy is also the first openly lesbian governor in U.S. history.

— Emily Bloch

John Fetterman supporters have started gathering at Stage AE on the North Shore in Pittsburgh awaiting results of the crucial Senate race.

A TV played CNN between an American flag and a flag of Pennsylvania. A large Fetterman sign, featuring Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente bridge, hung from the rafters.

Attendees are munching on sliders and light bites and sipping beers. Early returns from Pennsylvania, with fewer than 5% of the vote reported, showed Fetterman leading prompting loud whoops from the crowd.

Lynne Alvine, the Indiana County Democratic Vice chair, said she was feeling “very anxious but very optimistic.”

Alvine, a retired English professor, was also featured in one of Fetterman’s ads, slamming some of Oz’s miracle cures, featured on his show.

”I was the cranky old lady yelling about raspberry ketones,” she said.

Julia Sanders, 23, recently moved to Pittsburgh from Cincinnati and admitted she was nervous, holding a black Fetterman sign in one hand and a beer in the other. “I just hope we can keep the Senate and he seems critical to that,” she said “if we lost it, it would be so detrimental to women.”

— Julia Terruso

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim made an early appearance at his watch party in Mount Laurel, N.J.

“I’ve been in some waiting games before, so we’ll see how it goes,” Kim said.

In 2018, it was nine days before AP declared him the winner.

“I’m a patient man,” he said.

— Amy Rosenberg

Josh Shapiro’s Election Night party in the cavernous Greater Philadelphia Expo Center near Valley Forge National Park in Montgomery County is starting to fill with supporters.

The race between Shapiro, the Democratic nominee and state attorney general, and State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican from Franklin County, has drawn a small legion of national press — demonstrating Pennsylvania’s crucial swing-state status in these midterm elections.

Jean McKinley of Lansdown came to watch the election results roll in. She said she shares many of Shapiro’s positions on key issues. But her vote for him was also very much about keeping Mastriano out of the Governor’s Office.

”He’s way, way too far right,” she said.

A line soon formed for a food truck parked inside the event, serving platters of chicken piccata, poached salmon and pulled pork.A disc jockey is playing music — loudly — with pop tracks like “Closer” by OTC and oldies like “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees — as supporters pick up party favors like key chains in the shape of the bus Shapiro toured the state with on the campaign trail.

The bus is here too, parked off the side of a large stage. A police officer with a dog just circled the bus for a close inspection. All seems clear.

— Chris Brennan

Election returns change as the votes are counted, and that’s normal. It’s how elections work.

And Pennsylvania’s numbers will move in some predictable ways — and some messy ones.

Broadly speaking, the very first results to be reported are heavily Democratic because they’ll come from mail ballots that have been counted during the day. Philadelphia, for example, reported the results of about 65,000 mail ballots in its first batch of results shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. Several other counties similarly began reporting their initial mail ballot results — and those also skew heavily Democratic, since Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to vote by mail.

So at first, the results will make it look like Democrats are “winning,” but that will be extremely misleading. Within minutes of polls closing, Allegheny County released the results of more than 156,000 mail ballots it had counted, and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman received nearly six times as many of those votes as Republican Mehmet Oz did. The ultimate results will be much closer.

The numbers will then shift much more heavily Republican over the course of the next few hours.

In a mad dash after polls close, counties read and report the results from voting machines. Since Republicans are much more likely to vote in person, those precinct results will be more Republican than the overall vote, and it will look like Republicans are “winning.”

As counties continue to count mail ballots and report those results, the numbers will slowly shift back in the Democrats’ direction.. That’s known as the “blue shift,” and it can be significant, as it was in 2020, when the presidential race wasn’t called until Saturday, four days after Election Day.

— Jonathan Lai

Mohammed Donzo was the last voter at Christ Lutheran Church in Upper Darby. For him, voting is a weighty personal obligation.

”I don’t want my candidate to lose because of just one vote,” said Donzo, 45. “If I can make that one vote, that’s why I’m coming.”

A Liberian immigrant and cab driver, Donzo said he votes straight Democrat because they are the party that offers support to people like him. The biggest issues for him were protecting democracy from “election deniers,” he said, and protecting a woman’s right to choose.

”Even though I’m a Muslim [and] I do not believe in abortion, I also feel that people should make that independent decision for themselves,” he said. “Not the state or … even the Supreme Court.”

Moments earlier, Phyliss Farmer was surprised to learn her name wasn’t listed on the rolls. The 59-year-old homemaker said she’d lived at her current address for 10 years and has voted since.

Poll workers didn’t want to be quoted but said they called the Delaware County Election Hotline but, perhaps because voting was nearly closed, no one answers. Workers helped Farmer fill out a provisional ballot instead. One common reason a voter’s name may not appear is because their registration has been declared inactive if they haven’t voted in the last two elections. Farmer said she wasn’t sure whether that was the case.

Social security, fair wages and education equity were Farmer’s top priorities.

— Layla A. Jones

Florida incumbent Republican Ron DeSantis will remain governor according to the Associated Press.

DeSantis beat out former Florida governor, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist. This reelection could position him for his anticipated 2024 presidential run.

» READ MORE: DeSantis defeats Crist, wins 2nd term as Florida governor

— Emily Bloch

In the bucolic borough of New Hope, along the Delaware River in Upper Bucks County, Democrats began pulling their candidates’ yard signs from the entrance to borough hall around 7:45 p.m: Poll workers said turnout was high in the borough of 2,600, with more than 1,000 in-person votes and 500 ballots cast.

A few last voters pulled into the parking lot before 8 p.m. One of them, Rachel Sooy, 34, said she would discuss the issues, not the people she voted for. “Issues that mean a lot to me are healthcare and the fact that we are potentially going 50 years backward and giving away rights that our children could have had is not right to me,” Sooy, a clinical administrator, said.

Christopher Faino, 60, said he’s always split tickets in elections but didn’t this time around.

”I went straight Republican,” he said.Faino, who works for an engineering firm, said the economy and public safety were his two driving factors.

”It’s time for a change,” he said.

— Jason Nark

Supporters of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mehmet Oz began streaming into his election results watch party in Bucks County shortly after polls closed Tuesday night.

The venue, the Newtown Athletic Club, is the same one he held his event on the night of the May primary. The “NAC,” as it’s known locally, is a private gym and sports facility owned by Jim Worthington, a controversial backer of former President Donald Trump who paid payed for buses that shuttled supporters from Pennsylvania to Washington during the Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the Capitol that became an insurrection.

If Oz’s election-night preparations were any indication of his success, he appeared to have higher hopes heading into the general election than the primary. In May, when Oz was in a bitter three-way race for the GOP nomination, he joined a hundred or so supporters in a small tucked-away room at the facility. On Tuesday, his event was held in a large gymnasium decked out in American flag banners.

— Sean Collins Walsh

The 8 p.m. polls are closing, marking results coming in for key races in states including Florida and Pennsylvania.

Florida is expected to count its votes quickly, with incumbents Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis waiting in the wings.

Locally, analysts are looking to see what happens in the gubernatorial race between Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Those results could indicate what’s to come in the high-profile senate race between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz.

— Emily Bloch

In Camp Hill, Pa., just across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg

Around 7 p.m., Mastriano supporters began filing into the Penn Harris Hotel’s grand ballroom, where Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” was playing.

A Latinos for Mastriano group was among the first arrivals.

An event staffer laid out lighting details for photographers for “when the future governor comes on.” Disco-ball effect lights swirled around the room.

“I love that he’s a conservative and a Christian. He’s for the people and he was in the service,” Phillis Lyter, of Mifflin County, said of Mastriano, a retired Army colonel.

Lyter said she believed Mastriano, as governor, would pursue a small-government agenda and restore the “freedoms that are being taken away from us.” Lyter’s cousin, Carol Gruber, said she supported Mastriano for three reasons. They both voted straight-Republican today.

“I’m for his positions on the economy, crime, and abortion,” said Gruber, hold a Mastriano for Governor sign. Despite polls showing Shapiro ahead, Lyter said she was praying for a Mastriano victory — and hoping for some divine assistance. “We want the red wave,” Lyter said. “We believe in God and he does too.”

— William Bender

Adrian Mercado and Laura Chance are Democratic committee people for the Pennsport area. Like many neighborhoods in South Philadelphia, the Republican Party has a stronger presence than elsewhere in the city — but they say that relations are civil between the sides, even friendly.

”We are partisan Democratic committee people and there are volunteers here on the Republican side who we have really good conversations with,” said Mercado, who is a machinist at the airport. “A lot of them recently switched parties in the last five years and they still have a lot of overlapping values when it comes to labor, jobs, unions.”

Chance says she became a committeeperson when state representative Elizabeth Fielder initially ran for election in 2018. She’s worked every election since at Herron Recreation Center on 213 Reed Street and she’s gotten to know her GOP counterparts over the years.

”You have all these very amazing conversations with people that you don’t have much in common with, may even be diametrically opposed to,” said Chance. “But in reality you want the same things and the nuance is there. It’s about getting through that initial prejudice or assumption.”

Today she talked with voters about inflation and economic issues.

”I never thought I’d be here talking about cost of a stick of butter,” said Chance, “but we’re here for 15 hours, you might as well get to know your neighbors.”

— Jake Blumgart

The stroke of 7 p.m. Eastern on clocks marked the closure of polls in states South Carolina, and Virginia.

The bulk of polling centers will close in the next two hours.Closed races still have less than 15% of ballots counted and are all considered too early to call.

— Emily Bloch

As darkness fell on the Wesley Enhanced Living building in the borough of Doylestown, voters emerged feeling relieved that’s it finally — for the most part — over.

”It’s turmoil,” said Mike Wallace, 71, a borough resident. “It’s just so much negativity. It’s driven me crazy. It’s hard to sort it all out.”

Michael Jacobs, 52, said he took a couple of elections off because “the political stuff was just nuts.”

”The advertising is getting crazier and crazier,” Jacobs, an auto technician, said. He said his wife pushed him to vote today, and he went straight Republican.

Harry and Erica Jones said they were also fatigued, unable to avoid the crush of negative ads that blanketed the region in recent months.

”I’m glad I can watch TV now and not have to see it,” Harry, 58, said.

The couple voted Democrat Tuesday and while election season wore on them and millions of others, Erica, 49, said voting in America remains a unique and honored privilege.

”Especially as a woman,” she said. “That wasn’t always the case with women.”

By 6:30 p.m., almost 700 residents had voted at the senior living center.

When Selena Gomez, Joe Biden, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez added the balloon-lettered, pastel “VOTE” sticker to their Instagram stories Tuesday, they, along with an untold number of other social media users, shared the work of Philadelphia artist Fabiola Lara.

Lara has been a freelance designer since 2015, and posting her work on Instagram apparently got the company’s attention. Instagram contacted her in March, asking her to design digital stickers for this year’s election season.

She designed three other stickers for Instagram with an election theme, a rainbow design that says, “Register to Vote;” a heart with, “I voted,” on it; and a lady in a blue bucket hat with the words, “I registered to vote.” All four have been available on Instagram since May and users can pick English or Spanish versions. The Instagram icon for election-related material, a red, white, and blue ballot box, is hers, too.

“As an artist you always want to get your work out there,” Lara, 30, said, “so to collaborate with a brand that has as much influence as Instagram is a pretty big milestone for me.”

» READ MORE: Meet the Philly designer behind Instagram’s ‘VOTE’ stickers

– Jason Laughlin

Concerned about the economy, crime, and voting rights, voters in North Philadelphia have been steadily coming out to the polls today, with some reporting lines formed even before the doors opened at 7 a.m.

But a high number of voters who came searching for the abortion rights question on the ballot because of their concern over the U.S. Supreme Court’s June reversal of Roe v. Wade only found something about aviation and civil service exams instead.

Board of Election Judge Antoinette Harden estimated that at her polling site at the North Philadelphia Municipal Building on N. 22nd Street, almost 50% of the voters came in search of the abortion ballot question.

Poll workers suggest that ubiquitous TV news soundbites and campaign advertising may drive turnout, but they don’t help fill in knowledge gaps, especially for low information voters. Instead, many voters had the impression that overturning Roe v. Wade was a ballot issue.

“That’s how they have everybody thinking,” added Pamela Jones-Tate, an 11th ward committeeperson. “They are confused about what they are voting for. They think if they vote [to overturn Roe v. Wade] it is going to happen.”

Harden said current campaign practices fuel misunderstanding. In terms of abortion rights, low information voters did not connect the election of a pro-choice candidate with the protection of Pennsylvania’s abortion rights.

“Then they ask me who to vote for (that supports abortion) and, of course, I can’t answer,” Harden added.

Harden complained that not only was there a lack of information and voter education this year, but most ballot questions, regardless of topic, are not understandable. This year’s ballot questions, according to a basic readability calculator, would require a college degree to understand but almost seven out of 10 Philadelphians read at a sixth to eighth grade level.

– Lynette Hazelton

The earliest election night polls closed at 6 p.m in Indiana and Kentucky. Those closures will mark the beginning of election results streaming in.

Poll closing times vary by state, county, and sometimes neighborhood. Rules for how the ballots are processed and counted also varies by area.

We already know that Philadelphia’s vote count will take longer than expected due to a last-minute change to catch possible double votes.

The latest poll closures by local time will be 8 p.m. But in the Eastern time zone, that means we’ll be waiting until as late as 1 a.m. for all states to end their elections. Hawaiian and Alaskan polls will close at midnight and 1 a.m. Eastern time, respectively.

Tonight’s results could impact the rest of Joe Biden’s presidency with Democrats’ control of the U.S. House and Senate at stake.

Key concerns for voters this Election Day included abortion, the economy, democracy, and crime according to ABC News.

Local polls close at 8 p.m.

– Emily Bloch

At the Groveville Fire Company polling location in Mercer County, where the Dominion voting machines were down all day, voters filled a small room and waited to mark paper ballots with wide sharpies. They then slipped the ballots into one of two black drop boxes the size of filing cabinets.

From there, said poll watcher Rick Fletcher, the ballots would be loaded into special red canvas bags, locked and sealed, and taken to the county headquarters for manual counting.

Some voters were unfazed by the glitch — “Not a big deal,” said Dena Wilson,” who voted for Andy Kim. But others were infuriated.

“Why am I not surprised,” said Nicole Moskal after being told machines were down and her paper ballot would be hand counted.

“We’re voting with Sharpies like it’s our first election, like we’re inventing Democracy, like it’s Iraq,” she said.

Moskal, who voted for Republican Bob Healey in the Third District Congressional race, recalled how up until the last four years, with the old electronic machines, “It was never an issue. You went into a voting booth and go click, click, click, and you had results that night.”

Another voter, a 69-year-old woman who declined to give her name, called the glitch, “an outrage.”

“I thought it was a joke when people told me the machines were down. In our large county, all of the machines are down. I don’t believe any of it now. I don’t trust any of it.”

On Tuesday evening, the Superintendent of Elections issued an update: “A contingency plan is in place for all ballots cast at all locations to be scanned at the secure Board of Elections office.”

– Amy Rosenberg

At Springfield Baptist Church, registered Republicans were splitting their ballots.

Ken Dunbar, 69, voted for Josh Shapiro for governor over Republican Doug Mastriano, saying Shapiro “seems like he does the most good.

“I’m just trying to get somebody in there that’ll do some good and make some sense out of things,” Dunbar said.

He voted for a third-party U.S. Senate candidate, saying that while John Fetterman’s health was a concern, he wouldn’t have voted for the Democrat regardless.

Springfield is one of Delaware County’s last Republican enclaves, and voters entering the church overwhelmingly accepted Republican sample ballots over Democratic ones. But the county has changed, Jim Devenney said.

“The towns, the county, was all Republican,” said the 78-year-old a former Springfield commissioner. Now, Delaware County is controlled by Democrats.

Devenney voted for Mehmet Oz over Fetterman in the U.S. Senate race but voted for Shapiro in the governor’s race.

“I think you have to look at the person,” Devenney said, “and I think as far as that Shapiro is a better candidate for governor.”

Emily Angelos, a 20-year-old Republican, said abortion was the most pressing issue for her.

“I don’t believe that we should be allowed abortions,” she said.

Angelos cast a straight Republican ticket for the U.S. Senate and governor. She said she specifically supported Oz’s abortion stance.

During the Senate debate in October, Oz said state and local governments should legislate around abortion, rather than the federal government.

In another big race for the area, Devenney said he did not vote for incumbent U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon. Overhead, an airplane hummed as it flew a banner: “Send away Mary Gay.”

– Layla Jones

All Luzerne County polling places will stay open an additional two hours, through 10 p.m., because of a “seriously deficient” supply of paper for their voting machines.

A judge ordered the extended hours, acting on a request by local election officials, to ensure all those who want to vote can.

“Voters in Luzerne County, through no fault of their own, were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote,” Common Pleas Court Judge Lesa S. Gelb wrote her order, explaining the extension was granted “in an effort to protect and maintain the integrity of the 2022 General Election and to protect the voters of this county.”

Out of Luzerne County’s more than 180 polling locations, at least one out of five had a paper shortage in their voting machines, said Luzerne County Councilmember Tim McGinley.

“That’s a problem and very disappointing,” he said.

Mary Russo has been a poll worker for at least six years and said she’s never been through anything like Tuesday.

The three voting machines allocated to her ward in Duryea came with almost no paper. The problem was caught almost immediately and she called the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections by 8 a.m.

“It was a nightmare this morning,” she said, adding there were plenty of people willing to help run down more paper and only a handful of people had to fill a provisional ballot. “It’s just more work.”

County officials said as voters used provisional ballots the supply of those also began to run out. They scrambled to get more paper in the meantime.

Luzerne County uses touchscreen voting machines on which voters make their selections and then have them printed out onto a sheet of paper. That paper ballot is then scanned into separate machine.

“The Luzerne County Election Bureau is attempting to obtain the paper to supply all of the polling locations sufficiently,” officials said in their Tuesday afternoon petition before the court. They warned: “Electors of Luzerne County may be deprived of their opportunity to participate because of circumstances beyond their control if the time for closing the polls is not extended.”

Both the Democrat and Republican parties supported the election bureau’s petition.

But even after the court issued its order extending the hours, some news reports of the delay on social media sought to use the issue to cast doubt on the integrity of the elections.

Historically a reliably blue county until former President Donald Trump won it twice, Luzerne is seen as a bellwether for the country.

But as poll worker Dave Bronsbury made the 20-minute to Wilkes-Barre to get two boxes that came with 2,000 sheets of paper each he remained in good spirits.

“It was kind of fun,” he said. “Felt like I did something.”

– Jonathan Lai, Jeremy Roebuck, Ximena Conde

Crime and public safety was a top-of-mind issue for many Pennsylvanians Tuesday.

At the Conshohocken community center, some Republicans expressed fears about public safety and inflation.

Dan Gregory, 28, worries about public safety, especially as gun violence rates continue to climb in nearby Philadelphia.

”It’s about nipping it in the bud,” he said. “Better to do something about it now, be for it comes our way and something happens.”

Jason Krajewski, a 32-year-old Port Richmond logistics project manager, said he wants to see newly elected leaders take on crime, because he doesn’t feel his current Pennsylvania state representative, Democrat Joseph Hohenstein, is doing enough.

”We have increased crime in our community here, and not a lot of things under Hohenstein I feel have been addressed,” Krajewski said. “That’s why I voted for [Mark] Lavelle, and hopefully he can make some changes.”

At Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, Theresa Rittenour hugged her four-year-old granddaughter, Kayla, after voting. While Kayla came mostly for the sticker, Rittenour — who has lived in the Bucks County borough for more than 50 years — said she came out Tuesday in hopes of change.

The economy, crime, “what they’re trying to teach in public schools…as far as I’m concerned, it’s going the wrong way,” she said.

Michael Scafidi, a Republican committeeperson in Ward 26, greeted most voters by name outside the Marconi Plaza Bocce Courts at 2800 S. Broad St., asking after their health and their family. Scafidi says that the issue he hears the most about from voters is crime.

”Trying to make the city a little safer seems to be the biggest issue for most people,” said Scafidi, 60. “That’s the big thing for me. I have a 21-year-old daughter who goes out at 5:00 in the morning. I’d love to not have to worry.”

– Vinny Vella, Henry Savage, Jake Blumgart, Oona Goodin-Smith

At the Philadelphia Gas Works office at Broad and Tasker Streets, elections workers got their voting machines up and running early Tuesday before realizing they had not been given the correct size of paper ballots. The machines refused to print on them, said Dan Pohlig, the division’s judge of elections.

The issue was resolved by a technician within about an hour, but about 20 to 30 voters filed paper ballots in the interim. Others left and came back to vote later once the machines were running again.

Tirza Trejo, an elections clerk, said the ward had seen 278 in-person voters by 3 p.m. — “a pretty good turnout.”

”I’m glad the issue with the machines was a simple fix,” she said.

— Aubrey Whelan

Voting machines at the 54th and Chestnut polling place are now working after all were down for several hours. Poll workers said that in the time they waited for repairs, many voters were turned away, and they estimated dozens of paper ballots had to be cast.

Marion, 71, a poll worker, said it was frustrating to see so people making the effort to vote, and ultimately be told that they couldn’t because of machine issues.

“We had so many people coming out…[some were saying], ‘I’m not coming back.’ No, please come back.”

— Nate File

In New Jersey’s Third Congressional District, both Rep. Andy Kim and challenger Bob Healey made pleas to voters in Mercer County not to let glitches with voting machines dissuade them from voting.

“I’m here to assure you that my election integrity team and my legal team are on top of it, and have been on top of it all morning,” the Republican Healey said in a Facebook video Tuesday afternoon from what appeared to be his kitchen table. “The most important thing you can do right now is go out and cast your vote.

“If you do that, whether you’re waiting in line, whether it’s a provisional ballot or a paper ballot, you have my assurance and my team’s assurance that your vote will be counted.

“Folks, It’s been a long road, and we’ve come too far to let it fall by the wayside now.”

Also on Facebook, the Kim campaign posted around noon: “Mercer County voters: PLEASE vote today!

“We know there are some issues with scanners, but VOTING IS STILL MOVING FAST AND every vote will be counted. Election officials are working to fix the issue.”

— Amy S. Rosenberg

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Northeast Philly Democrat active in foreign affairs, said he has fielded several requests from media outlets in other countries, eager to talk about control of Congress and the fate of democracy in America.

Boyle said he thinks Republicans will take control of the House but Democrats still have a “50-50 shot” at holding onto the Senate, with the Pennsylvania race playing a critical role in that. He noted that 90% of midterm elections since 1900 have been dominated by the party that did not control the White House.

“That’s a tremendous headwind that we’re facing,” said Boyle, who is hoping the margins in the House remain close, giving Democrats more leverage when Republican leadership needs votes to pass important legislation for government funding and to raise the country’s debt ceiling.

“There is a big difference in having a majority with 25-plus seats and having a majority win the single digits,” he said.

He also predicted problems for the Republican leader, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, will face “absolute fits” with “wackos” in his party like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

The Democratic Party will have less control over potential House committee investigations that some in the Republican Party have vowed to launch into several aspects of President Joe Biden’s administration and family.

“How Kevin McCarthy pacifies the biggest fringes of his caucus is going to be one of the biggest X-factors moving forward if they’re in the majority,” Boyle said, who expressed concerns that the hard-right legislators will try to choke off America’s funding for the Ukrainian government’s efforts in the war against Russia.

“Will Kevin McCarthy stand up to the MAGA extremists? I’m skeptical,” said Boyle, who is expected to easily win a fifth two-year term Tuesday.

— Chris Brennan

The election task force being run by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has fielded just a handful of calls for generally minor issues at the city’s polls as of Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Collins, who oversees the unit, said at a 2 p.m. news conference that it has fielded 16 calls and several emails, most for reports of people standing too close to polling locations — an issue typically resolved without any trouble.

“It’s been relatively quiet, which is a good thing,” Collins said.

The task force has about 50 prosecutors and detectives on hand to investigate and respond to reports of any election interference or intimidation

— Chris Palmer

Scores of Democratic elected officials and politicos gathered Tuesday for the traditional Election Day buffet lunch at Relish in West Oak Lane.

The event, hosted by U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, serves as the Black political establishment’s answer to the longtime gathering of largely white politicians and strategists at the Famous 4th Street Deli in Queen Village, and it has become a must-visit stop for Democrats seeking office in city or statewide elections.

A large crowd formed around Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro when he walked in. Shapiro has opened up a significant polling lead over GOP nominee Doug Mastriano in one of Pennsylvania’s two nationally watched statewide races, and supporters congratulated him on the campaign.

While chatting with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Shapiro said, “I’m feeling like we left it all on the field.”

The crowd included Gov. Tom Wolf, District Attorney Larry Krasner, State Sen. Vince Hughes, State House Democratic leader Joanna McClinton, and State Rep. Jordan Harris, who chairs the Philadelphia delegation to Harrisburg.

Also in attendance were many candidates running in next year’s mayoral election and others who are said to be considering joining the race, including former Council members Derek Green, Cherelle Parker, and Maria Quiñones Sánchez; former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart; Councilmember Helen Gym; and grocer Jeff Brown.

Evans, who ran for mayor unsuccessfully in 2007, said he hasn’t yet decided who he’s supporting in next year’s mayoral contest.

— Sean Collins Walsh

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office is investigating at least two incidents in which trail cameras were quietly installed in areas overlooking mail ballot drop boxes before Election Day.

The first camera was spotted over the weekend near a dropbox at the Independence Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library, in Center City, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The city removed the device and conducted a sweep of all other drop box locations, but found no other devices at that time.

However, by Monday, neighbors near Fishtown’s Shissler Recreation Center had spotted a similar trail camera mounted on a utility pole near a nearby ballot drop box, leading the the city to remove the device and conduct yet another sweep of drop box locations.

Both Shissler and the city library have municipal surveillance cameras nearby, aimed at the ballot drop boxes.

Lauren Rinaldi, the 18th Ward leader, said a ward committee person notified her about the Shissler Rec camera on Monday.

She said its presence raised alarm for local civic leaders at a time when conservative groups have been targeting mail-in ballot dropoff locations across the country, describing its installation as a form of voter intimidation.

“It’s extremely concerning to discover a mysterious surveillance camera pointing at a drop box at a time when voters and election workers are already on edge about this election,” she said. “Folks are scared right now so just hearing about this camera feels like voter intimidation and, even though it’s down now, might cause voters to stay home.”

City spokesperson Kevin Lessard confirmed that the District Attorney’s office was investigating but declined to answer questions about how the devices ended up on city property.

A spokesperson for the District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office declined to comment.

— Max Marin and Ryan Briggs

Police cars had blocked off several streets around 11th and Ellsworth Streets in South Philadelphia, close to where police shot a man they said had shot and killed a 20 year old woman at Broad and Ellsworth Streets earlier that morning.

St. Maron Maronite Catholic Church, a polling station at 10th and Ellsworth, continued operations throughout the day. Larry Lindsay, the 2nd Ward, 10th Division committeeperson, said he had been chatting with a voter when someone else outside the polling station said they’d heard gunshots.

He said voters had been concerned to hear sirens and see police shutting the streets down, but that turnout had been good at the location. His division was close to surpassing the number of in-person votes cast in the primary by 10 a.m.

Luc Lavatai, 25, said the shooting hadn’t deterred him from voting; he and his partner had bypassed the crime tape down the block to get to the polling station.

Lavatai works in public safety technology, and said that while crime is concerning, the emphasis on it this election season should be taken with a caveat: Crime in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s was still much higher than current levels, he said. The 911 calls he processes as part of his job are more of an “infrastructure failure” — a product of Americans not having anywhere else to turn for help, he said.

Duncan Gromko, another 2nd Ward Democratic committeeperson, said voters had been shocked and saddened by the shooting. “One voter was very upset and said, ‘you need to do something about this,” urging tough-on-crime policies, he said.

Gromko said he agrees generally with Lavatai’s views on crime and the election. But he spoke to his neighbor for a time about his feelings. “We had a good discussion. At the end he shook my hand and said, ‘No hard feelings,’” he said. Gromko added that it’s hard to gauge whether the shooting affected neighborhood voters, especially in the early hours after the incident, where information was scant.

Lavatai voted for a straight Democratic ticket and said he doesn’t trust Republicans. “Our prior president was remarkably irresponsible, and Jan. 6 was a civil insurrection and domestic terrorism,” he said. He’s unconcerned by GOP campaigning on the economy, and said he was confident that federal interest rate hikes under President Joe Biden’s administration will ease inflation rates.

— Aubrey Whelan

An unattended camera at East Passyunk Community Center sparked fears among Democratic committee people that the camera was being used to film and intimidate voters — as some groups have attempted at mail-in ballot drop off centers around the country.

As it turned out, the camera was set up by a Fox News reporter filming b-roll, who had left to sit in a car nearby. Committee people asked the reporter to identify the camera as belonging to the press or to move it back from the polling station, as they were concerned that voters would see the unmarked camera and feel intimidated.

“It’s my job to make people feel safe. To have an unmarked camera filming people in this climate …” said a Democratic committeeperson who declined to give their name, saying “I don’t want to make it about me. This is about voters feeling safe.”

— Aubrey Whelan

Depending on your polling place, your “I Voted” sticker may have been designed by Philadelphia School District students.

Fresh Artists, a Philadelphia nonprofit that uses student artwork to raise money for underfunded public school art programs, sponsored a voter-education campaign that encouraged students to learn about voting, then put on their graphic designer hats to create stickers to distribute at the polls.

Mary Kate Bergh, the art teacher at Hartranft Elementary School in North Philadelphia, loved the idea and approached some of her students about participating.

Angel Vo, a seventh grader, seized the idea, dreaming up a design with “I VOTED” in colorful letters, set against a backdrop adorned with an eagle, an eye, the Phillie Phanatic and other decorations.

“Art inspires me, and art can inspire other people,” said Angel, 12.

Bergh loved the concept, which she said highlights not just Angel’s abilities, but also “the diversity that makes up our city, and the importance of what it means to vote.”

Students voted for the winning designs, with 20 winners chosen citywide.

— Kristen A. Graham

Just an hour after Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz cast his vote, Ken Austin stood outside the Bryn Athyn Borough Hall donning a “Fetterman” hat and buttons.

Austin, 59, was volunteering with the local Democrats outside the polling place. Then his mom showed up.

“I’m embarrassed to be seen with you!” Janet Austin Simons, 86, said jokingly to her son as she left the precinct.

The mother-son duo could not have voted more opposite. Austin, who was once a registered independent but now committed Democrat, voted blue down the ticket.

Simons, a lifelong Republican, went all red, voting for Oz for Senate and Doug Mastriano for governor.

“I’m a Republican through and through, and I can’t believe what happened to my son!” she said with a laugh.

Simons said she goes to church with Oz and his family, and said he is a smart, strong leader.

“He has earned his own money,” she said. “And he’s an immigrant — a legal immigrant — and he has a great family who’s lived in this community for generations,” she said.

Austin, said he could never vote for someone who stands with Trump and Mastriano, or anyone who spread lies about the 2020 election results. He likes that Fetterman has experience in office, he said, and connects with the average Pennsylvanian.

“Oz is OK with the insurrection,” Austin said.

His mother shook her head and said she had to go — she had to stop by the local book fair to buy Christmas books for her grandchildren.

— Ellie Rushing

Lakisha Brown, 40, who lives in Kensington with her 3-year-old daughter, said just coming out of her apartment on Kensington Avenue, near Lehigh, filled her with anxiety. The shooting outside a neighborhood bar over the weekend, which sent nine people to the hospital, was just a string of many.

“For every shooting you hear about, there’s many more that don’t get any attention,” she said after voting at her polling station inside the Community Center at Visitation, which bills itself as “A beacon of hope for Kensington.”

She voted straight Democrat, though she said she doesn’t know why she even bothers.

“I don’t feel safe out here. I don’t even think my vote matters. I just vote and pray it makes a difference,” Brown said.

She said she was unaware that there was a special election for City Council and had never heard of any of the candidates, though she voted for at-large Democratic candidates Jim Harrity and Sharon Vaughn and Quetcy Lozada to replace Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez, who resigned from her 7th District Council seat to run for mayor.

“Is she a Democrat? What is she saying she’s going to do for us? I don’t even know to be honest,” Brown said about Lozada after voting for her.

Moments later, Lozada arrived at the polling site to thank election workers. Lozada said she understands that voters are “very surprised” to learn there’s a special election, acknowledging that many “don’t know.”

“We’ve tried to educate community residents as much as possible,” Lozada said. “Since I received the nomination back in September, we’ve kind of been diligently working to inform people. Hopefully they know me. And if they don’t know me, they’re going to see my poster today.”

She said many voters and poll workers she met Tuesday morning recognized her name when she introduced herself, noting that she’s worked in city government for 30 years.

“Some people say, ‘Oh, I saw your name on a poster’ or ‘I heard your name on the TV or radio,’ or, ‘I heard your name from a neighbor.’ And so I think people know my name. They’re afraid to say it because it’s hard to pronounce.”

» READ MORE: After shooting in Kensington, some accuse city leaders of not doing enough to improve area’s conditions

— Wendy Ruderman

A 41-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting a woman on a South Philadelphia street Tuesday morning was later shot in the leg by SEPTA police officers who chased after him, authorities said.

The second shooting, involving the man and SEPTA police, happened not far from St. Maron’s Maronite Catholic Church, which is serving as a polling place Tuesday. Seth Bluestein, a City Commissioner, said the incident did not impact voting at that location.

The incident began just before 8 a.m. at Broad and Ellsworth Streets, where Philadelphia Police say the man shot a 20-year-old woman 10 times.

Two transit officers on-duty near the Broad Street Line’s Ellsworth-Federal station heard the shots and saw a man running toward a car, said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch. After the man got in and drove away, Busch said, the officers pursued him to 11th and Ellsworth Streets, where at least one officer fired and struck him in the leg and shoulder.

Police said the man was taken to Jefferson University Hospital and placed in stable condition.

The woman who was shot, whom police did not immediately identify, was taken to Penn Presbyterian, where she was pronounced at 8:26 a.m., police said.

The SEPTA officers were not injured, said Busch. The initial shooting appears to have stemmed from a domestic dispute, District Attorney Larry Krasner said.

— Chris Palmer

Hours after Philly reversed course and reinstated a procedure to catch double votes, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Tuesday dismissed a request by Republicans for an emergency injunction that would have forced it to do so.

Both sides agreed the question before the court was moot after a vote earlier this morning by the city commissioners, Philly’s three-member election board, to reinstate what is known as poll book reconciliation.

The poll book reconciliation process is a way to flag mail ballots submitted by voters who also voted in person. Philly elections officials used to perform reconciliation during the vote count, allowing them to catch those double votes before being counted. But that labor-intensive and time-consuming process slows the vote count. This year, Philly tried to do what other counties do: Get all the votes counted and then perform poll book reconciliation afterward.

Republicans, led by a GOP election law group founded by Karl Rove and Bill Barr, sued Philly to keep the poll book reconciliation process in place. A city judge said Monday that she agreed with their argument and would grant an injunction lambasting the commissioners for eliminating what she described as an important mechanism for deterring and catching potential fraud. But she said it was too late and too disruptive to the election to force them to reinstitute poll book reconciliation hours before vote counting would begin.

That prompted the appeal before the Commonwealth Court on Tuesday and the sudden about-face from the commissioners, who voted hours earlier to reinstate the process. The commissioners noted they weren’t forced to do so by the order. But they said they were worried that the judge’s opinion, however strongly they disagreed with it, would undermine confidence in the city’s election.

“There is concern that that will feed disinformation campaigns that seize on every opportunity to cultivate distrust in the democratic process,” said Bonnie Hoffman, a lawyer representing the city. “As a result, the commissioners held a meeting this morning and voted to reimplement poll book reconciliation.”

— Jonathan Lai and Jeremy Roebuck

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson was spinning records outside City Hall in Philadelphia Tuesday morning as part of an effort to get people out to vote on Election Day.

Questlove — a Philadelphia native, drummer and frontman for The Roots, Academy Award winner, etc. — appeared as part of the non-partisan Joy to the Polls effort, which is attempting to turn out voters nationwide. Dance parties at other polling places across the city Tuesday will include performances from DJ Diamond Kuts, Cosmo Baker, and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

— Rob Tornoe

Born and raised in Greene County in southwest Pennsylvania, Barb Stewart, 78, and her husband Ken, 82, have been Republicans all of their adult lives despite growing up Democrats.

Shortly after the polls opened at 7 a.m. in Waynesburg, Barb said the Democratic Party is no longer what she knew it to be growing up, and the Republican Party now stands more for the issues that matter to her most.

“I will not back a party that supports the killing of innocent children,” said Barb, referring to the Democratic Party’s stance on abortion access.

Abortion, however, is not the primary reason she’s a Republican. She believes the Democratic Party no longer cares about the people and doesn’t agree with its policies.

“They’re not one of us anymore,” she said.

— Valeria Quinones, the News Lab @ Penn State for Spotlight PA

Tuesday morning, at a polling place in Ventnor, where incumbent Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a former Democrat turned Republican, is running against Tim Alexander, a Democratic voter named Lisa said she had voted for Alexander, but knew nothing about him.

“I know more about John Fetterman,” she said, reflecting all the ads playing out on Philly television. She declined to give her last name.

Despite concerns about the economy, she said, “It’s not the Democrat’s fault.” She said she was concerned about the erosion of personal rights, and said, “If I have to do Trump again, I get a physical reaction to that.”

Another voter, a 52 year old social worker who also declined to give his name, said he had always voted Democrat until recently. He said he was tired of hearing about cultural issues like gay rights, gender and pronouns, despite being gay himself. He was more interested in the economy and security.

“I do not need to hear about gender rights, gay rights,” he said. “They don’t put food on my table. They don’t put a security blanket over my head. Those are the things that matter.

“At the end of the day, I think Trump did a better job. The Democratic party lost me. Stay out of my closet, and don’t tell me how to live my life.”

— Amy S. Rosenberg

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s campaign for U.S. Senate has joined the legal fight over whether mail ballots with no date or the incorrect date should be counted in Tuesday’s election.

The Democratic campaign sued Pennsylvania elections officials Monday asking a federal judge to order that all mail ballots be counted regardless of what date, if any, voters wrote on the outside of the envelope.

State law requires that voters handwrite a date on the outer envelope when returning their mail ballots, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that undated and wrongly dated mail ballots be set aside and not counted. The court issued a follow-up order Saturday setting specific date ranges that the handwritten dates must fall within.

The Fetterman campaign sued in federal court in Pittsburgh, joined by the the Democrats’ U.S. House and Senate campaign arms, as well as two Democratic voters in Erie County who submitted undated mail ballots. They argue that the handwritten date requirement is a technicality and not used to determine whether votes were legally cast.

Throwing out ballots over such a technicality, they argue, violates federal civil rights law.

“The date [requirement] imposes unnecessary hurdles that eligible Pennsylvanians must clear to exercise their most fundamental right, resulting in otherwise valid votes being arbitrarily rejected without any reciprocal benefit to the Commonwealth,” their lawsuit reads.

» READ MORE: John Fetterman’s Pa. Senate campaign is suing to have undated and misdated ballots counted

— Jonathan Lai and Jeremy Roebuck

Maira Machado doesn’t always vote the straight Democratic ticket but she did this year. “My rights are at stake,” the 51-year-old said at 7:30 a.m. outside her polling place, Cook-Wissahickon School in Roxborough. “No one should tell me what happens in my uterus.”

She said she wasn’t concerned about John Fetterman’s capabilities to lead, given his medical condition. “He’s not your polished politician, you understand? He reminded me of me if I was to give a presentation.” Plus, she said, many people have medical conditions.

Machado, who said she’s voted in every election since she was 18, said she’s also concerned about voting rights, given how Republicans have called the election process into question when they lose. “It was always an honor and a privilege to come out and vote,” she said, and she’s worried the youth, like her son, might lose that ability.

At the East Passyunk Civic Center in South Philadelphia, a steady stream of voters flowed in and out of the polling booths.

Jonathan Laynas said he’d recently moved — and lost the mail-in ballot he’d already received. He voted provisionally instead. “It was very easy — they’re very helpful in there,” he said.

Both he and his wife Aria had voted for Fetterman and Josh Shapiro, and said they were concerned about abortion rights and civility in politics.

“You can’t be a woman, or married to a woman, and not vote that way if you want any future for our kids,” Aria Laynas said.

Ashley Smith, 30, is an independent, but has been leaning more Democrat on her ballot in the past few elections. Smith first registered to vote before the 2016 presidential election, motivated by multiple issues she felt were at stake in that election.

“I’m not very political and will stray either way depending on what views are being discussed,” Smith said. “Today, reproductive rights is something that’s very important to me. To me it was important to get out and give my input to keeping those rights, especially as someone who that directly affects.”

— Juliana Reyes, Aubrey Whelan, and Massarah Mikati

On a brisk Election Day morning, Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz arrived at the polling station in his Montgomery County town to cast his vote.

A group of local and national media clustered outside of Bryn Athyn’s borough hall, as Oz and his wife, Lisa, emerged from a GMC Denali and entered the precinct, welcomed by a series of claps from a few supporters tabling outside.

Minutes later, Oz emerged. “Success!” he said, holding his wife’s hand.

”I’m very proud of how we ran this campaign,” Oz told reporters. “Pennsylvanians are sending a very clear message to Washington: less radicalism, and more balance.”

He did not take questions, but as he walked back towards his car, a reporter asked, “Will you accept the results no matter what?”

”Yes, of course,” Oz replied.

Meanwhile in Braddock, Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman and his wife Gisele voted at New Hope Church.

“Who did you vote for?” a reporter asked Fetterman. “I voted for that guy,” Gisele said, pointing to her husband.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for governor, voted with his family Tuesday morning at Rydal West Elementary School in Montgomery County, not far from his home in Abington.

Shapiro, after casting his ballot, stressed that he was trying to appeal to a broad range of Pennsylvania voters. ”I’ve tried to build a coalition of Democrats, Republicans and independents who want to reject dangerous extremism to pull us together to do things that really matter to people,” he said after a long campaign of casting the Republican nominee, State Sen. Doug Mastriano of Franklin County as too extreme to be governor.

Asked if he could work as attorney general with Mastriano if the Republican wins the election, Shapiro said, “I’m focused on winning and I feel really good about where we are.”

”But I think I’ve proven throughout my career I can work with anybody — Republicans, Democrats, independents,” Shapiro said. “When you’re asking for a position of public trust like this, you have to be prepared to work across the isle.”

Mastriano voted Tuesday morning in his south-central Pennsylvania district, though the exact location is unclear. Mastriano’s campaign did not respond to media requests about when and where he would be voting.

— Ellie Rushing, Julia Terruso and Chris Brennan

Workers began counting mail-in ballots at Philadelphia’s election warehouse on Roosevelt Blvd early Tuesday morning.

Election results will take longer to report after officials voted Tuesday morning to reinstate a process that can catch possible double votes from being counted. The change means that ballots still left to count after Tuesday night — numbering in the low tens of thousands — will instead be counted and reported in a slow trickle over the rest of the week.

The polls close in Philadelphia at 8 p.m.

— Rob Tornoe

Voting machines are down across Mercer County, New Jersey, officials announced Tuesday morning.

Early Tuesday morning, West Windsor Township announced that all voting machines were down “due to a Mercer County-wide system outage.”

“Voters can still vote by completing their ballots and placing them in the top of the scanning machine in the slot where the emergency ballots are placed.” Mercer County Clerk Paula Covello wrote on Facebook. “Everyone can vote manually, so rest assured no one will be disenfranchised.”

Officials did not offer any updates when the issue might be resolved.

“The Board of Elections has advised the county of issues with voting machines. Poll workers will be on hand to walk voters through the process,” the county said in a statement shared on Facebook.

Portions of Mercer County were added this year to New Jersey’s Third Congressional District, where Rep. Andy Kim is facing a challenge from Republican Bob Healey.

» READ MORE: N.J. Rep. Andy Kim has to beat an ex-punk rocker turned yacht dealer to serve another term

— Rob Tornoe

In the waning days of the race for Pennsylvania’s top job, Democrat Josh Shapiro has far outraised Republican Doug Mastriano, according to campaign finance reports filed daily over the past two weeks.

Shapiro raked in roughly $2.4 million between Oct. 25 and Nov. 7, to Mastriano’s $475,000, records show.

Shapiro’s biggest donors continue to be political action committees run by national Democratic groups, as well as public and private unions. More than $440,000, for instance, came from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has spent heavily in Pennsylvania to elect a Democrat in another marquee race: that for U.S. Senate.

Shapiro also received $200,000 from Jeffrey Lurie, who owns the Philadelphia Eagles, and $250,000 from billionaire Thomas Hagen, the board chair of Erie Indemnity Company.

In all, Shapiro has raised an eye-popping $65.2 million since the start of 2021 and spent a record $62.2 million. Compare that to Mastriano, who has raised $6.9 million in that same time frame and spent $5.8 million.

The two men have run vastly different campaigns. Shapiro has inundated the airwaves with campaign ads, while Mastriano has largely appealed to a loyal base, unable to front the cash to keep pace in ad spending.

Among Mastriano’s largest donors over the past two weeks: the political action committee affiliated with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, which contributed $50,000. The PAC run by Mastriano’s running mate, GOP state Rep. Carrie DelRosso, also donated $50,000.

— Angela Couloumbis, Spotlight PA

Philadelphia officials voted Tuesday morning to reinstate a process that can catch possible double votes from being counted — and will also slow down their ability to report midterm election results over the next week.

If Pennsylvania’s high-stakes U.S. Senate race is as close as expected, a wait for results out of the state’s largest city is sure to shine a national spotlight on Philadelphia, similar to after the 2020 presidential election.

The procedure, known as poll book reconciliation, flags mail ballots submitted by voters who also voted in person. It’s time-consuming and labor-intensive — and will slow down the reporting of Philadelphia’s election results.

The city commissioners, the three-member elections board, voted 2-1 shortly after 7 a.m. to reinstate poll book reconciliation.

The decision is a reversal from one they made less than a week ago and came just as polls opened and vote counting began. It also came a day after a city judge, responding to a Republican lawsuit, said they could move forward without the process.

“I want to be very clear that when there are conversations that occur later this evening about whether or not Philadelphia has counted all of their ballots that the reason that some ballots would not be counted is that Republicans targeted Philadelphia – and only Philadelphia – to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does,” Seth Bluestein, the sole Republican commissioner, said before voting for reconciliation.

He was joined by Lisa Deeley, the Democrat who chairs the board. Fellow Democrat Omar Sabir voted against reinstating the poll book reconciliation process.

» READ MORE: Philly elections officials adopted a last-minute change that will slow down the counting of votes

— Jonathan Lai and Jeremy Roebuck

Election Day is here and there is a lot to keep track of.

Instead of googling all your questions, we may have already answered them for you. Here are answers to reader’s frequently asked election questions, including links to our voter guide and previous Inquirer coverage.

What hours are the polls open on election day in Philadelphia

In Pennsylvania, election day is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. If you’re in line by 8 p.m., you will be allowed to cast your vote.

Where do I vote in Philadelphia?

If you’re voting in person, you’ll vote at your designated polling place based on the address you gave when you registered to vote. You can find your polling place on the Department of State’s website.

How do I know if I’m registered to vote?

You can check your voter registration status on the Department of State’s website by entering your name, license number, or PennDOT ID.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania election day 2022: Hours, polling places, voter intimidation, ballot status and more

— Henry Savage

Some Philadelphia voters were turned away from fixing their flawed mail ballots Monday afternoon.

The line to enter the elections office in City Hall — which had grown dozens-long by late afternoon — was cut off so the last voters to enter would do so at about 5 p.m., said Seth Bluestein, one of the three commissioners who run elections.

A similar policy had cut off the line in 2020, turning away voters.”I feel awful for any voters who were turned away after the line into City Hall had to be cut off,” Bluestein tweeted Monday. “The staff (including the sheriff’s officers) are doing the best they can to help as many voters as possible with very little time and resources.”

Philadelphia had posted lists of voters whose mail ballots were submitted with fatal flaws, such as lacking signatures or dates. Those ballots will be rejected unless voters “cure” the problem by visiting the City Hall elections office and having replacement ballots issued to them.

The lists showed 3,500 voters were in danger of having their ballots thrown out. That kicked off a frenzy of efforts to contact the affected voters and help them get to City Hall to get replacement ballots so their votes can be counted.

Voters who were turned away Monday, and others who still need replacement ballots, can still do so Tuesday. The elections office in room 140 of City Hall will be open again Tuesday, and voters can also still go to their polling places and use provisional ballots.

— Jonathan Lai

Election Day is fast approaching, and Nov. 8 is your last opportunity to vote in person in the 2022 midterm election.

If you have a mail ballot and want to use it to cast your vote, it’s not too late. Just don’t put it in the mail. It’s too late to guarantee that your ballot will be delivered on time through the Postal Service. Instead, take your ballot to your county election office or other county drop off location or drop box by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

If you would prefer to vote in person, polls open in Pennsylvania starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday and will close at 8 p.m. Just so you know, there can be problems at the polls. We’ve broken down how you can fix them.

» READ MORE: What to do if you have problems voting at the polls in Pennsylvania on Election Day

— Grace Dickinson, Henry Savage

Election Day is here.

Once again, eyes across the country will be on Pennsylvania as voters in the swing state decide who will succeed Sen. Pat Toomey — Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, or celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz. They’ll also determine whether Attorney General Josh Shapiro or State Sen. Doug Mastriano will succeed Gov. Tom Wolf, as his two terms in office come to a close.

While you’ve likely heard all about those races, there are plenty of other important candidates running for state and local offices to consider. And this year, there’s potential for Democrats to take control of at least one chamber of the legislature, controlled by the GOP for more than a decade.

“For the first time in generations, we’re actually competing on a level playing field,” Rep. Leanne Krueger (D., Delaware), chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, told The Inquirer earlier this year.

» READ MORE: Pa. Voter's Guide: Candidates, polling places, and more

— Inquirer staff