Popular mid-term election creates long lines, predictions of potential record turnout
By 4 p.m. Tuesday, more than 1,200 of the more than 3,600 Murrysville residents registered to vote at the Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church had done so.
The next 176 people who wanted to cast a ballot stood in line — which stretched from inside the church, snaked around sidewalks and corners, through the parking lot and nearly to Old William Penn Highway.
The wait at that time was expected to be at least an hour and a half.
Westmoreland County’s largest precinct must be split, said Mark Boggs, 63, who votes there and serves as one of two volunteer precinct committee people for Democrats.
“This one and Sardis are just too large now,” said Boggs, who had been there all day. The wait at 7 a.m. was about 30 minutes, he said. It grew to nearly two hours around 1:30 p.m. Elections officials kept both of those precincts open after 8 p.m. to allow everyone in line to vote.
“The worst I’ve ever seen was in 2016, for presidential election,” Boggs said. “This is about the same.”
Westmoreland County Elections Bureau Director Beth Lechman said additional voting machines were sent to precincts in Murrysville and Hempfield in an effort to reduce wait times.
Lechman said the size of the precinct at Newlonsburg Presbyterian has been an issue in recent elections. Officials have begun to explore reconfiguring precincts in Murrysville to reduce wait times in future elections.
“There are people driving around and not stopping when they see the line,” Boggs said. “We’re having people not casting ballots because the effort is too much.”
Not all people were bothered by the wait.
Dewees Cutshall thought the hour wait at 10:30 a.m. was too much. So he left and came back at 2:05 p.m. One hour and 12 minutes later, he finally voted — the 1,141st person to do so that day.
“It was longer for Trump,” said Cutshall, 51, of Murrysville, referencing the 2016 general election that put Donald Trump in the White House. “But this turnout is high.”
Cynthia Oliver waited one hour and 15 minutes to vote, not counting the 20 minutes she spent trying to park.
“I’m glad to see the turnout. It’s great,” said Oliver, 56. “It makes me feel more legitimate about the vote with this turnout.”
More than half of Western Pennsylvania’s registered voters could vote in Tuesday’s midterm election — one that is expected to shatter turnout records across the state and nation, elections officials and observers say.
A technician repaired a calibration issue with a voting machine at First Presbyterian Church in Irwin. The machine did not need to be replaced, and the glitch did not change any votes, elections officials said.
Lechman said she expects voter turnout to reach as high as 55 percent in the county. About 40 percent of registered voters cast ballots four years ago.
In the 2014 midterm election, Pennsylvania’s overall voter turnout hit about 41 percent.
This time, “it wouldn’t shock me that the turnout statewide is between 45 and 50 percent,” said G. Terry Madonna, director of Franklin & Marshall’s Center for Politics and Public Affairs. “We’re going to have the largest turnout in a midterm than we’ve had in a while, and it’s all motivated by one word: Trump.”
Many voters report being motivated to get to the polls, some for the first time ever or first time in decades, because they support or oppose President Trump.
“Democrats dislike him personally, don’t like his policies, don’t like the issues that he pushes forward. They have problems with his style and personality, and they want their party to gain control of Congress,” Madonna said. “And conversely, make no mistake about it, the Republican party is now Trump’s party, and Republicans in high percentages support him.”
Natasha Lindstrom contributed to this report.
