If Tuesday marks your first time to vote or would be the first time you're casting your ballot since moving, you'll need to bring proof of identification. State election officials say that can include any government-issued ID such as a driver's license or U.S. passport, a utility bill or a bank statement that includes your name and address. A military or student ID would also be accepted. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Election officials say as long as you are in line to vote by 8 p.m., you will be allowed to cast a ballot.
The key Senate race in Pennsylvania is in a dead heat. Though both parties spent the weekend sending in former Presidents Obama and Trump in hopes of turning out voters, the dynamic of the race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz has not shifted. A polling average from RealClearPolitics shows Oz ahead at zero-point-one point, while FiveThirtyEight has Fetterman ahead by the same percentage.
PA's U.S. Senate race between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz is being called the most expensive ever in state history. Over $100 million more has been spent on political ads for 2022 than was spent in 2016. The ad tracking firm AdImpact reports $261 million has been spent or reserved for media in the race in the commonwealth. Analysts say Pennsylvania has also attracted a lot of outside spending as its election outcome might be key to determining which party is in control of the U.S. Senate.
The four living ex-governors of Pennsylvania have a shared message about today's election. In a letter sent to Doug Mastriano and Josh Shapiro, former governors Tom Ridge, Mark Schweiker, Ed Rendell and Tom Corbett urged those candidates to respect and accept the results of the election, regardless of the results. In the letter to the gubernatorial candidates, the ex-governors wrote, "We are asking you to pledge to honor that process, respect the law, abide the peoples' will and support a peaceful transfer of power."
All 203 seats in the PA House of Representatives and 25 in the state Senate are up for election today. Some political analysts are predicting the General Assembly may look different next year as many legislators will be retiring or switching chambers. Republicans have maintained control of both chambers for over ten years, but many lawmakers are also running in newly redrawn districts. That fact could create opportunities for some seats to flip political parties.
State election officials say nearly a million-and-a-half Pennsylvanians have requested vote-by-mail ballots for the midterm elections. Data from the Pennsylvania Department of State show the vast majority of the requests for absentee and mail ballots -- roughly 70 percent -- came from registered Democrats. The biggest share of the requests came from Allegheny County and Philadelphia but other counties, including Bucks, Montgomery and Northampton Counties also had large numbers of voters requesting early ballots.
John Fetterman's campaign for the U.S. Senate has filed a lawsuit in federal court. It is fighting to have Pennsylvania mail-in ballots counted, even if they do not have a valid date. A divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ordered counties to refrain from counting those ballots. Attorneys for Fetterman say the date instruction imposes unnecessary hurdles for eligible voters. Republicans have sued to have the votes 'not' counted.
Election Day has arrived and with it continued questions about mail-in ballots, specifically those dated incorrectly, or not at all. Secretary of the Commonwealth Leigh Chapman says they're asking every county to answer a survey on the number of those undated and incorrectly-dated ballots. "We have no systematic way of capturing that information. That's why we sent the survey to all 67 counties to ask how many undated and how many incorrectly dated ballot do you have and also broken by party," Chapman says. At this point, Chapman says all mail-in ballots still to be turned in need to be dropped off at your county's drop-off locations and 'not' sent in via the postal service.
Had election day fallen yesterday, you could've worn t-shirts and shorts to cast your ballot. Today, Accu-Weather's Kerry Schwindenhammer says you might need a sweatshirt. "Today, we're getting up to about 59 degrees with lots of sunshine," Schwindenhammer says. He says there's no chance voters will need to worry about rain today.
A fire at an Allentown substation caused quite a problem Monday morning. Up to 21,000 PPL customers on the West End of Allentown were in the dark, some for several hours, after a transformer blew. Among those affected were St. Luke's Allentown campus and Lehigh Valley Health Network's hospital at 17th and Chew streets. The Allentown School District sent all affected students home at 10:30 due to the outages.
Two men are dead after a Monday morning crash. It happened on I-78 east when a dump truck crashed into the Adams Road overpass, near Route 100 around 10 o'clock Monday morning. The truck was driving in the eastbound lanes, but because an overpass was involved, crews had both directions of the highway closed. The Lehigh County Coroner identifies the men as 63-year-old Donald Gercie of Alpha, NJ and 40-year-old Joel Fantauzzi-Ortiz of Bethlehem.
School officials say they still don't know why some 50 children and adults fell ill at the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School last week. Fire department officials say tests of the air quality turned up nothing to explain what affected the people who were spread out across three buildings. The school's CEO says the facility owner will be bringing in specialists in the coming days to run further tests.
The Bethlehem Township Board of Commissioners has voted to deny a zoning change for a new 24-hour Wawa convenience store and a related development. The gas station, which would have included a drive-thru, would have been built at 4900 Freemansburg Avenue but the whole project included plans for nearby apartments, as well. Some citizens who spoke at the meeting Monday night were mostly concerned about putting a gas station so close to a residential area.
An annual program to get rid of crows at the state capitol is now underway. The Department of General Services says Capitol Police are trying to keep the birds from roosting using exploding shells and whistling devices. The birds' waste is said to be a hazard to the capitol's sidewalks as well as to its buildings. The program will continue in the evening hours for the next few months.
New Jersey lawmakers are proposing a bill to extend students' time in school. In order to catch up for time lost during the pandemic, they are looking at the possibility of extending each day, or even lengthening the school calendar overall. If passed, a three-year trial program would go into effect with the longer timeframe in place. To fund the plan, each district would receive up to one-million dollars per year.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is backing a slew of legislation to help combat rampant auto thefts. Of the four measures, one would require judges to consider more serious consequences for those repeatedly found guilty of stealing cars while another would invest in pretrial services to stop someone from committing additional crimes. As these bills work their way through the legislature, Murphy is directing the Motor Vehicle Commission to explore adding a checkbox that would allow residents to opt into a program that would automatically give law enforcement access to a car's internal navigation system if it was ever stolen. Car thefts were down by 12-percent this October compared to the same time last year.
Lottery players around the country are continuing to wait for results of the scheduled Monday night Powerball drawing. With a record one-point-nine-billion dollar jackpot up for grabs, officials were forced to delay the drawing in the multi-state lottery saying that one state needed additional time to process its sales. Officials say the drawing cannot go forward until that process is complete. The drawing is expected to take place this morning.