Live updates: 1.1M mail ballots returned in Pa. as voters head to the polls

• Minor issues in Cambria County

• Different views on data centers

• 1.1 million mail ballots returned

• Splitting the ticket in Delaware County

• ‘People are struggling’ in 10th Congressional District

• Voters cast ballots in the critical 7th Congressional District

For Ifeanyi Bertram Nwadukwe and his wife, Ifeoma Kwadukwe, voting in Williamsport comes down to the cost of living today and the opportunities available to the next generation.

Ifeanyi, a physician at Geisinger Medical Center, told the News Lab at Penn States rising costs for everyday necessities like gas, heat and groceries have become an ongoing conversation in his household. He said his family has had to become more intentional about spending, making decisions about what they can and cannot afford. They only get what they need — no excesses, he said.

Nwadukwe wants lower taxes and more affordable housing, particularly for younger generations entering the workforce, he said. He also wants to see greater support for lower-income families, giving more people the opportunity to “live the American dream.”

Education is another priority. He believes college costs need to come down and that students should have access to curricula and degree programs that better reflect the realities of today’s job market.

His wife, Ifeoma, runs a small baking and catering business called Ifychops n Cake. She wants to see the state’s current policy ensuring free school meals remain available to children across Pennsylvania. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2026-27 budget proposal included funding for universal free school breakfast for a fourth consecutive year, according to his administration.

“As a mom, you want to make sure that your kids are fed three times a day, so that is really important for me,” she said. —Tori Misuraca, The News Lab at Penn State.

This morning, reports were circulating online of what sounded, to me, like pollbook issues in Cambria County. You may recall that Cambria County had a significant issue in 2024 with tabulators being unable to scan ballots.

Shortly after polls opened this morning, conservative activist Scott Presler posted on X that a polling place in Johnstown was “turning people away” as a result of voters’ names being missing, presumably from pollbooks.

I asked the county what was happening, and they sent me this statement. TL;DR: One precinct did not receive a complete pollbook, but a replacement was printed and sent to the polling place. The issue did not prevent any voter from casting a ballot.

Minor issues like this sometimes happen in elections, which is why there are contingency plans like provisional ballots to ensure voters can still vote.—Carter Walker, Votebeat

At Easton City Hall, in the city’s Second Ward, a line of voters snaked across the lobby.

Logan Cole, 25, said he voted “Democrat down the board.”

“I can’t say I’m very informed when it comes to midterms specifically, but I feel more strongly about one side over the other,” he told Spotlight PA.

A chef who has lived on his own the past few years, Cole said the economy, healthcare, and education are important issues to him.

“The economy is a large factor, [but] just the nonsense of it all,” he said, pointing to Republican majorities at the federal level.

“Priorities are completely out of whack,” he said. “This isn’t an America-first government. It’s also an uneducated government.”

At Bethlehem City Hall, in the city’s Sixth Ward, Mike Garcia, 86, said he’s hopeful for change.

“I vote for the individual,” Garcia, a registered Republican, told Spotlight PA. “I don’t go by party.”

However, he voted with his party in both the 7th Congressional District and gubernatorial races.

Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie is “very dedicated to the county,” Garcia said, adding that he “cares about the people.”

Garcia said he’s “displeased” with Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Stacy Garrity “is a good treasurer, a good person,” Garcia said. “I think she can make good changes.”

Adriana Trumbower, a 22-year-old house cleaner who is registered as an independent, told Spotlight PA it’s her first time voting in a midterm election, adding “it’s really important for people to vote, and I think it’s important we start going in another direction as a country.”

She cast her ballot for Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro and 7th Congressional District candidate Bob Brooks.

“I really love Shapiro,” Trumbower said, highlighting his support for women’s reproductive rights.

“I voted for Bob Brooks because I really don’t like Ryan Mackenzie,” she said. She listed several issues she disagrees with Mackenzie on, including his vote for President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” his position on abortion, and that he “takes money from corporations.” —Molly Bilinski

Jevata Crawford, 53, and Ryan Durkin, 55, had never met before the morning of Election Day. But the pair struck up a conversation while they waited in line to cast their ballots at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Lower Macungie Township, Lehigh County.

Despite Crawford being a Democrat and Durkin being an independent, they told Spotlight PA they found themselves agreeing on a lot — especially that the polarization and volume of political advertising in this year’s contested races was out of hand.

It just seemed “wasteful” to Crawford, who noted that “finances are tight for so many people.”

Their area is a petri dish of competitive and expensive races this year, from U.S. Congress to state Senate to state House.

Affordability and the rising costs of goods, Crawford said, were the issues top of her mind when she filled out her ballot for Democratic candidates.

The personal attacks, like those launched between Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and Democrat Bob Brooks in the 7th Congressional District, also upset Crawford and Durkin. (One example Crawford cited was Mackenzie criticizing Brooks over a lawsuit sparked by the Democrat being indebted to his former mother-in-law.)

That race is one of four congressional seats that Democrats aim to flip this year as the party hopes to seize a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Crawford and Durkin said they’re tired of polarization making it difficult to have conversations with friends and family members about politics.

Durkin, a self-identified split-ticket voter, said the economy and personal finances are what he and the vast majority of voters care most about. This year, these issues are even more prominent because of general spikes in costs and the war in Iran driving up oil prices, he said.

Durkin said he’s also frustrated with congressional Republicans who have “abrogated” their responsibilities to allow President Donald Trump to take more power.

Speaking about Trump, Crawford and Durkin — in unison — called the president an “opportunist.”

As Durkin and Crawford headed to their cars parked in the church’s lot, they waved and said they looked forward to seeing each other at their local grocery store. —Jaxon White

Joe Calhoun wore purple on Tuesday when he came to cast his vote at the municipal building in Dauphin Borough in central Pennsylvania.

It’s a borough that is so red, he noted, that in 2008, then-vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, came to this tiny town on the edge of the Susquehanna River to trick-or-treat with her daughter during the campaign.

His purple sweater, he said, symbolizes his registration as an independent. He votes in every election, he said, although he noted with a hint of disapproval that in Pennsylvania, that means he can’t vote in primaries.

His big issue is energy — he described himself as being “in the energy business” — and it’s the top reason he’s voting for Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is seeking a second four-year term in office. He said the U.S. Department of Energy has become politicized: The government agency’s website and social media “read like a Trump campaign slogan.”

“They have nothing to do with what the Department of Energy should be doing or is doing for the good of the people,” he said. “It’s not why it was established; it was established to advance new technologies and make things better for all of us. We have the technology for carbon capture and all kinds of things that we aren’t even talking about.”

“So I vote energy all the time, so that makes me very proud of what Josh Shapiro has done,” Calhoun said. “This is a guy who understands energy and works with both sides of the aisle.’

He said he “was ashamed to say” he voted for Trump once.

“But I would never vote for him again,” said Calhoun, who was at the polling station Tuesday with his wife, who said she switched her registration from Republican to Democrat after Trump was first elected in 2016 — and that her now 96-year-old mother did so as well.

Calhoun said the race between Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry and Democrat Janelle Stelson was also at the top of his mind. In his opinion, Perry needs to go.

“I don't understand how someone who is ‘in favor’ of term limits has gone for six terms,” he said. “I just don’t understand that. It’s just time to go.” —Angela Couloumbis

Gunhilde Beck is a retired physician and registered Democrat living in a very red area: Dauphin Borough in central Pennsylvania’s Dauphin County.

Republican voters here outnumber Democrats, and the borough has gone for President Donald Trump in the last three presidential elections. So Beck is somewhat of a rarity here.

But on Tuesday, she got up before dawn and set up a lawn chair outside the borough’s polling station at the municipal building. She planted signs for Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro and congressional hopeful Janelle Stelson, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Scott Perry. She made the sign for Democrat Kathryn Waters, who is trying to unseat GOP state Rep. Joe Kerwin in what is widely considered a very uphill battle.

She made the sign, she said, because Waters’ campaign is not flush with enough cash for campaign merchandise.

Beck, who describes herself as an “environmentalist, pro-science, and anti-corruption,” is originally from Germany but has lived in the borough for five decades. She was never political, she said, until Trump won in 2016. And in this year’s election, she decided to volunteer for the Democratic Party for the first time, going door-to-door canvassing.

One of her biggest issues is healthcare.

“The money goes to insurance companies and to hospitals and to providers; it doesn’t go to a patient,” she said. “But now we are blaming the poor people. And now we are taking their Medicaid away, and they are ending up in the emergency rooms, and we are paying more for them.”

“And vaccinations,” she said. “My mind explodes thinking about RFK being our health secretary during a measles epidemic. I’ve never seen a measles case in my life. We are taking all the science away. Corruption at every level.”

Beck said she thinks it’s important for voters to understand how important state elections for governor and the legislature are. She believes the divided General Assembly — the House is controlled by Democrats, the Senate by Republicans — has amounted to gridlock that has prevented good policies, including increasing the minimum wage, from being approved.

“The statehouse makes so many decisions that impact our lives,” she said. “If Shapiro gets the House and Senate, they can finally make change.” —Angela Couloumbis

Two Democrats voted straight-party at a Concord Township, Delaware County, polling place Tuesday.

Both agreed the economy is bad, and shared concerns about the Trump administration. But they had radically different opinions on artificial intelligence and data centers.

Neil Shah, a 52-year-old working in real estate, came out to vote with the "crap economy" and corruption within the Trump administration on his mind.

He voted only for Democrats, though he considered voting for Republican state Rep. Craig Williams, because he saw the lawmaker’s position on data centers and utility costs as closest to his own.

"I think there's a lot of heat around data centers and I don't think it's all well placed," Shah said. His business, he added, uses AI "everyday" to automate administrative tasks, which he argues keeps them competitive.

He also argued that Gov. Josh Shapiro's GRID standards, enacted by executive order over the summer, are good protections against the worst excesses of the industry.

Joanne Stow, a 69-year-old retired nurse practitioner, told Spotlight PA she also thinks the economy is bad, citing her volunteer experience at a local food bank.

"The rich are getting richer," she said, "the poor are getting poorer."

But Stow couldn't disagree more with Shah on AI, both because of data centers' energy consumption and because of how the technology has "infiltrated" everyday life, including mimicking humans and creating false information. She does use it to query for information, but always checks its sources to ensure its responses aren’t hallucinations.

She wants Shapiro, whom she likes, to have a Democratic state legislature to advance his policies. And at the top of the list is stricter rules for data centers and AI.

"I live in fear of them," she said with a shudder. —Stephen Caruso

For Dave Stiffler, a 63-year-old retired resident of White Township in Indiana County, the election is an opportunity to support candidates he believes will address the rising cost in taxes and bring change to the state’s leadership.

One of Stiffler’s biggest concerns is taxes. He told the News Lab at Penn State he believes taxes are too high and wants to see them lowered across the state.

“Everything,” said Stiffler. “Mostly property taxes, and all that stuff. Taxes in general.”

Stiffler said the issue extends beyond his own financial concerns, describing property taxes as a common complaint among neighbors and residents in his community. He said he regularly hears concerns.

“Everybody complains about property taxes, school taxes, everything,” he said. “It is too high.”

Stiffler said he has been voting ever since he was old enough and wants to see a change in the state’s governor race. He showed frustration with Gov. Josh Shapiro and said he hopes to see someone else elected.

“Trying to get Governor Ding-Dong out, and get somebody else elected,” Stiffler said.

Stiffler added that he pays attention to the broader election and the candidates running for office even when he can only vote on a limited number of them.

“I care about all of them, but I can only vote on three things in there today,” said Stiffler. —⁠Bronwyn Liber, The News Lab at Penn State

As of 8 a.m. Election Day, 1,114,767 mail ballots had been returned by voters in Pennsylvania. That’s out of 1,315,879 requested, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

The vast majority of returned ballots — 718,641 — were requested by Democrats. See more stats here. —Sarah Anne Hughes

Nestled behind the Susquehanna River sits the Lock Haven Regatta Foundation building. A small “Vote Here” sign in the back alley leads voters to a basement.

Brett Everhart, a professor at Commonwealth University-Lock Haven, lives on Water Street. He made his way to the building to vote just past 7 a.m.

Everhart said he is conservative but doesn’t always vote along the party line.

“It’s [about] who’s the best one,” he told the News Lab at Penn State. Adding that he supports Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is seeking reelection against Republican challenger state Treasurer Stacy Garrity. “I think that’s a big deal right now,” he said.

Everhart said he is “pretty pleased” with how his family and his city are doing. “So I am not looking for a whole lot of change,” he said.

National issues are nothing that “one person can solve right now,” Everhart said. He thinks the nation has to be patient and let things “take care of themselves eventually.” —⁠Avery McGurgan, The News Lab at Penn State

Charles Vogeley, a 75-year-old accountant in Concord Township, Delaware County, has been a registered Republican for as long as he's been voting.

Still, he split his ticket this year. He voted for Gov. Josh Shapiro, who Vogeley thinks works hard and has a "good head on his shoulders." He didn't even know the name of Shapiro’s GOP opponent, Stacy Garrity, and said he can't remember the last time he voted for a Republican for governor.

Still, Vogeley voted for his local GOP state Rep. Craig Williams.

Williams is "doing as good a job as he can do," Vogeley said. In particular, Vogeley appreciated Williams’ focus on utility prices, which Vogeley thinks were driven high by data centers.

Williams' district, the 160th in a wealthy corner of the Philadelphia suburbs, is a top target for Democrats as they push to expand their control of the state House.

Shapiro has personally stumped for Democrat Elizabeth Moro as part of his efforts to win the vaunted trifecta — control of both legislative chambers and the executive — and hopefully pass key policy wins without having to negotiate with Republicans.

But it's that very frictionlessness that Vogeley says he fears, and which informed his ticket splitting.

"The split legislature is OK because it provides checks and balances," he said. Under unified party control, "it can become a steamroller." —Stephen Caruso

Darin Bumbaco, 63, a disabled retiree, cast his first-ever ballot last week in Troy Township. The Towanda native walked, cane in hand, from his home to Trinity Lutheran Church after polls opened on Tuesday morning to collect his “I Voted” sticker.

For Bumbaco, this election cycle represents a break from the norm, for himself and, hopefully, from the country’s politicians.

“That’s why I never really voted,” Bumbaco told the News Lab at Penn State. “Every election, these politicians promise and promise. Nothing ever gets done.”

Economic upheaval and growing racial divides over the last two years finally urged Bumbaco to the polls.

“The cost of living goes up 100% every year, and the salaries never go up,” he said. “I could go back to work today and make probably $3 more an hour than I would have made 20 years ago. How crazy is that?”

Standing on the pavement in his black jacket and beanie, Bumbaco stands a bit taller having contributed to the democratic process for the first time.

“I wanted to vote this year so I can at least say I wasn’t one of those guys that complained about everything and didn’t get his vote in to try and change something, even if it doesn’t get changed,” said Bumbaco. “ I did my part.” —⁠Avery McGurgan, The News Lab at Penn State

Democratic state Rep. Nate Davidson, running for a second term this year, came to West Creek Hills Elementary School in Cumberland County’s East Pennsboro Township to greet voters.

The polling place, where voters from two precincts cast ballots, is one of the largest in his district.

He said he felt optimistic about his race, as well as that of Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is also up for reelection.

“It’s the other races,” he said, his voice trailing off for a minute. He was referring to the national picture, where control of Congress is front and center with multiple hugely competitive races for U.S. Senate seats, from Texas to Alaska to North Carolina.

“Am I supposed to believe polls? The last one I saw, the national generic is D-plus-10,” he said, adding that those numbers are reminiscent of years Democrats swept in midterm races. “I am anxiously optimistic.”

When he was campaigning, he said affordability issues were on voters’ minds, as was “corruption” in Washington, D.C.

“It just all kind of ties together with data centers, and corruption, and oligarchs, and ‘costs are going up for me but not for others,’” he said. “And I think a lot of voters are connecting the dots.”

Another big issue he’s heard from voters has not been in the national conversation as of late, but still apparently looms large: former financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

When President Donald Trump was running for president in 2024, he promised to release a trove of law enforcement files on Epstein. After he was elected, however, his administration came under scrutiny for missing key deadlines for releasing the case files; and as some of those files were released by the Justice Department in the months after, they contained multiple references to the president, who had been a close friend of Epstein’s.

“You can’t run for president saying you are going to release the Epstein files, learn that you are in them a lot, and then cover them up,” he said. “Oligarchs are in them too. And I think voters are connecting those dots.” —Angela Couloumbis

Afton Camp, 40, worked the night shift at the Qnity manufacturing plant in Towanda, Bradford County, before stopping to vote this morning. She cast her ballot before 7:30 a.m., as she does in every election, at Trinity Lutheran Church before heading home to sleep.

She hopes her neighbors will get out and vote today, too.

“It can’t just rely on one or two people,” Camp told the News Lab at Penn State. “If anybody wants change, they have to help make the change.”

Camp said she wants to elect the candidates that best represent the people because she has seen politicians becoming distanced from the people they serve, as well as the Christian values she said the country was built on.

“We were built on God, and we have ventured away from that,” Camp said. “We need to get back there, but to get back there, people have to come out and vote.” —⁠Alli Satterfield, The News Lab at Penn State

Samuel Copeland was one of the first voters to cast a ballot at the West Creek Hills Elementary School in Cumberland County’s East Pennsboro township after doors opened at 7 a.m.

This is a busy polling place, with voters from two precincts in the township casting ballots here — one is dominated by Republicans who went for President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election; the other is more evenly split and went for Kamala Harris in that election.

Copeland, who works at a local grocery store, has shifted his registration back and forth from Republican to Democrat over the years. He is currently a registered Democrat who volunteered for Janelle Stelson’s campaign. Stelson is running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry in one of the most closely watched and hotly contested elections in Pennsylvania this year.

He said his biggest issue is a belief that politics needs “fresh, new faces,” people who are young, open-minded, and who will help the working class.

Affordability has been a problem for him, as he’s found himself spending more money on food and gas. Given his job — he said he's a floater who stocks shelves, pushes carts, and fills in wherever he is needed at the grocery store that day — he’s also seen and heard firsthand how people are feeling pinched paying for groceries.

“People are struggling,” he said. “They’re hurting.”

What brought him to the polls Tuesday was the Perry-Stelson race. He wants someone in Washington, D.C. who will stand up to President Donald Trump, whom he called “the worst president in history.”

“Poll numbers prove it, and everybody is upset about it. Even his supporters are turning on him because of what he’s doing,” said Copeland. “He said he was going to lower prices, but he’s done nothing he’s promised, and it’s making a lot of people angry.” —Angela Couloumbis

Pennsylvania’s two major party candidates for governor — incumbent Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican Stacy Garrity — made their closing pitches to voters on the eve of the election.

"I came here tonight to tell you you’ve got a lot of power in this election," Shapiro said at a rally in Jenkintown, according to Fox 29. "Enough to be a check on Donald Trump’s chaos and cruelty and corruption.”

At her own rally in Newtown, Garrity focused on Shapiro: “Pennsylvania deserves so much better than the last four years. Under the failed leadership of Josh Shapiro.” Read more from Fox 29. —Sarah Anne Hughes

Just after polls opened at 7 a.m. in Pen Argyl’s Second Ward, a steady stream of voters entered St. John’s Lutheran Church in the unit block of N. Westbrook Avenue.

The Northampton County polling place is in the critical 7th Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Ryan Mackenzie is in a tight race against Democrat Bob Brooks.

Louann Thomas, 67, told Spotlight PA that she voted for all Democrats.

“My thing is, right now, we have a president who is destroying the United States, and I feel he has to go — like every other Republican,” she said.

Thomas, who works in retail as an assistant manager, said it’s her third time voting. She previously voted against Trump in the 2024 election.

Emily Bacerra, 46, said she’s supporting Republicans.

“I vote in every election, and I’m voting really to uphold principles, based on spiritual principles, as much as you can when there are a bunch of fallible people running,” she said.

Bacerra, an accountant, said “politics feels like a big game these days,” describing being inundated with political ads.

“It feels scripted and a little like a game, but I’m grateful to live in a country where we can vote and have our vote counted — not everybody has that,” she said. —Molly Bilinski

Voters were already starting to pull into the parking lot at West Creek Hills Elementary School in East Pennsboro, Cumberland County, shortly after 6:30 a.m.

This is a busy polling place, with voters from two precincts in the township casting ballots here — one is dominated by Republicans who went for President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election; the other is more evenly split and went for Kamala Harris in that election.

On the sidewalk outside, Scott Grob was setting up his table to promote Republican candidates, propping up his red pop-up tent and hammering lawn signs into the grass. Aside from ones specific to GOP campaigns, there were also black and white ones urging voters to “stop fraud and theft” and “stop the Democratic socialists,” as well as ones calling for “no males in female sports.”

Grob is a Cumberland County committeeman and registered Republican who said his signs reflect “common sense issues” that voters should care about.

The Democratic Party, he believes, has swung impossibly left and “once we get into communism, there is no way out.”

“My father was a Democrat. My grandfather was a Democrat,” said Grob, who was wearing a red hat with the phrase “Make Girls Sports Female Again.”

But before his dad died a few years back, Grob said, he believed the party had become unrecognizable.

“I know many young people don’t understand communism anymore,” he said. “But socialism has no place in the United States.” —Angela Couloumbis

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send election monitors to polling places in Philadelphia, Allegheny, Lehigh, and Luzerne Counties.

Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth Jonathan Marks told counties in an email that the monitors “are not authorized by any specific state or federal statute” and “may not enter restricted areas, inspect voting equipment, or demand access to any records.”

A spokesperson for the Department of State clarified to Votebeat and Spotlight PA that “restricted areas” include the area starting at the 10-foot buffer zone from the entrance of a polling site, meaning, effectively, monitors cannot enter polling places.

More from our partners at Votebeat:

“The Department of Justice had already announced that it would be sending around 1,000 election monitors to observe the voting today in all 50 states — the widest net the department has ever cast. But until this morning, we didn’t know the full list of exactly where in each state they would be. The department has now released that list; you can check it out here.

As a reminder, Department of Justice monitors are a regular presence in every election; if they do their job as they always have, they won’t interfere with voting. My colleagues will have more to say on the monitors later today.” —Nathaniel Rakich, Votebeat

Polls across Pennsylvania opened at 7 a.m. and will remain open until 8 p.m. As long as you are in line to vote by 8 p.m., you are entitled to cast a ballot.

Here’s more of what you need to know to vote today. —Sarah Anne Hughes

Good morning, it’s Election Day in Pennsylvania and across the country. It’s a pivotal election, with control of Congress and key governorships hanging in the balance.

Here in Pennsylvania, we are watching the governor’s race between incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Republican Stacy Garrity, the state treasurer. Shapiro has held commanding leads in the polls leading up to this day, and if voters reelect him, he will have another four years in office — a term that could be interrupted by a presidential run in 2028.

We will also be closely tracking state legislative races as Democrats try to wrest control of the GOP-controlled state Senate for the first time in decades.

Also on our watchlist are several competitive congressional races, including the tense rematch between Republican U.S. Rep Scott Perry and Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former TV news anchor, in the 10th Congressional District. The district covers all of Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York Counties in Central Pennsylvania.

Polls open at 7 a.m., and I’ll be starting my day in Cumberland County, one of the fastest-growing counties in Pennsylvania. Republicans outnumber Democrats here in voter registration, and the county went for Donald Trump in the last presidential election. —Angela Couloumbis

If this is your first time voting or your first time voting since changing addresses, you’ll need to bring proof of identification. This can include any government-issued ID such as a driver’s license or U.S. passport, a utility bill or bank statement that includes your name and address, or a military or student ID. See the full list of options. —Sarah Anne Hughes

If you need last-minute voting information, you can seek official answers from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling 1-877-VOTESPA. The nonpartisan Election Protection coalition has its own hotline, as well: 866-OUR-VOTE.

If you need to lodge a complaint about something you experience while voting, you can call the state’s hotline (1-877-VOTESPA) or reach the department using this form.

Still preparing to cast your ballot? Read Spotlight PA’s complete coverage at our Election Center 2026 website. —Sarah Anne Hughes

For those of you heading out to the polls, here’s what you need to know:

• Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Double-check your polling place here.

• In addition to nonpartisan poll workers, you may encounter partisan poll watchers who are sanctioned to observe polling places. Here’s what they can — and can’t — do.

• Have a completed mail ballot? You can still drop it off today by 8 p.m. Some satellite offices and drop boxes will close before then, so make sure to look up your local details. Do not put it in the mail. It will not arrive by the deadline.

• Have a mail ballot but want to vote in person? Bring all of the materials with you to your polling place.

• Requested a mail ballot but it never came? You can still vote using a provisional ballot.

• If you are facing a last-minute problem and can’t make it to the polls, you may qualify for an emergency absentee ballot. Read about those here.

Election officials can only begin processing mail and absentee ballots this morning, which means it may take days to report the full unofficial results in some competitive races. —Sarah Anne Hughes