On Election Day, I arrived at my polling place a little before 7:00 AM, when the polls were supposed to open. I wasn’t there to vote, as I had deposited my mail-in ballot at the appropriate dropbox a couple weeks a couple weeks before. I was there to be a certified outside poll observer (and minor electioneer).
The polling place had been moved from its usual location, the township office, to a nearby nondenominational church, converted from what had been an Ames. (As a former Catholic, this kind of structure is definitely not what I think of when I think of a church, but then it’s not my church, so it’s none of my business.) They were playing Christian rock on outdoor speakers. The reason for the move was COVID, of course. There’s a whole lot more room in that church than there is in the township office, making social distancing much easier.
In my experience, voting in this township has been very efficient. Even in elections with high turnout, it was never necessary to wait in line for more than 15 minutes. I had never seen a line as long as the one at this church. (Yes, I know, elsewhere, there have been much longer lines; this is just my personal experience.) The wait time was a full hour.
In the run up to the election, I was worried about violence. I live in western Pennsylvania, where their religion is guns, and they’e not shy about it. But of course, this is rural Pennsylvania, and all of the Democrats I know had voted early by mail or drop-box. Almost all the people in line were Republican, so why would they need guns? While I did see some Democrats I knew at the polling place, I saw no one who wasn’t white. In any case, it was perfectly clear that MAGA nation had turned out in unprecedented numbers. I was not surprised that Trump’s totals increased—in fact I was expecting it.
So what was the outcome? The good news is that, after that much-noted aberration in 2016, when Erie County voted for Donald Trump, Erie went back to blue! You can see it in the map above (upper-lefthand corner). However, beyond the presidential race, the result was a stalemate. All the incumbents were reelected. So the Democrats didn’t lose any seats, but they didn’t win any either. It appears that both houses of the Pennsylvania state legislature will remain under GOP control. There was hope to flip at least one house of the legislature, but that was just one more disappointment. Fortunately, the Governor, Tom Wolf, is a Democrat, so the redistricting/reapportionment process will not result in any flagrant gerrymanders.
But we got the White House! That counts the most.
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