Voters head to the polls; four Pa. seats could determine control of House; voting hours extended in some Chesco spots

In the mail-balloting and in-person voting, Democrats held landslide margins over Republicans in New Jersey heading into Election Day.

“Democrats appear enthusiastic,” said Ashley Koning, director of the Rutgers University Eagleton Institute Center for Public Interest Polling.

About 1.25 million registered voters in the Garden State had cast ballots heading into Tuesday, with Democrats holding a 400,000-vote edge, or more than a 2-1 ratio, said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rider University's Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.

After machine set-up issues delayed the opening of three Chester County polling places, the Court of Common Pleas has granted a 30-minute extension of voting hours at three locations:

Each will remain open until 8:30 p.m. 

Votes cast after 8 p.m. will be on provisional ballots, officials said. 

City Commissioner Lisa Deeley confirmed Tuesday there were federal election monitors at polling places in Philadelphia.

The monitors had not caused disruptions or been involved in problems related to voting, she said at about 12:40 p.m.

Deeley, one of the city’s three top elections administrators, said her office received reports of federal monitors at Pollock Elementary, Lincoln High School, a polling place in the 10th Ward, and possibly other locations.

At the East Bradford Township administration building in Chester County, voters were split on their views of Gov. Josh Shapiro.

“Shapiro hasn’t done a god darn thing but make everything worse, not like when I was young,” said lifelong Republican Joan Hale. “I won’t vote for Democrats, because I don’t want this country to become socialist, and that’s exactly what will happen.”

While Hale, 74, doesn’t agree with everything President Donald Trump has done in his time in office, she said she believes he’s “a patriot who cares about this country and not about power.” She particularly praised his work to lower prescription drug costs for older residents.

Call it unfortunate timing.

Voters assigned to the polling place at Jerome Brown Playground arrived Tuesday morning to find the several streets blocked off to traffic due to utility work, making it hard to access the site.

In a video, State Sen. Sharif Street, who is also the Democratic ward leader in the 11th, alerted voters to the construction and temporary workarounds.

No news is good news at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Election Task Force.

In full swing since the polls opened at 7 a.m., the task force is monitoring online complaint forms and a hotline for voting irregularities.

But the first few hours of voting remained largely uneventful.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker posed for photos with guests and shook hands during a brief stop at the traditional Election Day lunch at Famous 4th Street Deli.

Parker said she’s hoping for a Democratic “trifecta” in Harrisburg, meaning her party would win a State Senate majority, and retain the State House and governor’s office.

“This is good energy,” Parker said. “My hope today is that people across the city of Philadelphia, that they understand the assignment and they exercise their constitutional right to vote. But I think we're looking at a trifecta today in the in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

Mark Lynch Jr., leader of Philadelphia’s politically powerful electricians union, said the No. 1 thing he would be watching for in Tuesday’s election results is Gov. Josh Shapiro’s margin of victory.

“He worked his butt off, and up until the last minute, so I'm curious how large of a margin it really is,” Lynch said while ordering lunch at the traditional Election Day gathering at the Famous 4th Street Deli in Queen Village.

Shapiro, the Democratic incumbent widely viewed as a 2028 presidential contender, will want to run up the score on Republican challenger Stacy Garrity to enter the next election cycle with momentum.

Early-morning votes in West Chester were open about their support of Gov. Josh Shapiro. And the consensus among them was that he seemed primed for an ascendance to the national stage.

Outside of the Mary Taylor House on Walnut Street, Jay Lautenberg said Shapiro has consistently shown strong leadership, and has the ability to work across the aisle.

“He’s a good balance of a traditional politician with someone who is reliable with common sense issues,” Lautenberg, 52, said, referring to the quick temporary repairs made to I-95 in Philadelphia after a section collapsed in 2023.

Gov. Shapiro voted with his wife and son Jonah at his Abington Township polling place this morning.

The early morning rush had subsided by the time the Shapiros arrived around 10 a.m., but the governor received a warm welcome from neighbors in this Abington ward, about two-thirds of whom voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. Several voters said this morning they'd known Shapiro’s family long before he held public office.

“His father was my sons’ pediatrician until they were 18 years old,” said Diana Eidenshink, 62, a registered Republican who voted for both Shapiro and Rep. Madeleine Dean today. “Big fan of the whole family.”

Shortly after a mob of President Donald Trump supporters rushed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a horrified Julie Marshall decided to call her congressman.

She wanted to let Republican Brian Fitzpatrick know that she believed Trump needed to be removed from office for his role in what had occurred.

So she called Fitzpatrick’s office.

Monitors from the U.S. Justice Department will observe today polling locations in Philadelphia, among other Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware counties.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced that more than 1,000 monitors will be on the ground to ensure compliance with federal election law, including the Voting Rights Act and American with Disabilities Act.

Federal monitoring of elections is routine, and monitors arrived to Philadelphia under previous presidential administrations. In the 2024 General Election, President Joe Biden’s DOJ deployed over 700 monitors. 

Tina Loveland-Smith, 53, a Delaware County school administrator, held back tears as she described why she came out to vote at the Media Borough Community Center on Tuesday morning.

"I have a daughter, and I feel like our democracy is crumbling before our eyes," Loveland-Smith said.

A registered independent, Loveland-Smith been both a Democrat and a Republican in the past. Now, she said, the fight to "defend our democracy" transcends party lines.

The slow trickle of Democratic voters into Chew Recreation Center, a voting precinct and cherished community playground in South Philadelphia, was subdued during the morning rush Tuesday. Parents rolled strollers into the playground with bubbling children in tow, business people rushing off to work after casting a ballot, and the city squirrels populated the trees and fences around the park.

Those showing up to vote, however, were feeling a mix of hope for a change in global and domestic policy, but also trepidation at what’s to come under the President Donald Trump administration.

“I don't know why I was feeling a little bit nervous about voting for the first time in a long time. Social media's scaring me into thinking something bad will happen after this election,” said Point Breeze resident Liz Jacobson, 40, who pointed to reporting around the war in Iran and false election claims pushed by the White House.

Over a million voters in Pennsylvania cast their ballots before the polls even opened.

As of 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, 1,114,767 mail and absentee ballots have been returned, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. That's nearly 85% of the 1,315,879 ballots sent to voters.

The vast majority of those – 718,641 ballots – were from registered Democrats. Registered Republicans returned 280,442 ballots, while Independents accounted for the remaining 115,684 ballots.

For the most part, early morning voters at the Glassboro VFW, a quiet Gloucester County polling place on Wilmer Street, didn’t cast their ballots with a specific race in mind despite the county commissioners race gaining traction — and controversy — online.

As a member of the military, Randall Williams, 47, said he voted Tuesday to do his civic duty. He declined to share his party.

“You can’t sit there and complain if you don’t go out and vote,” Williams said.

Juan Lopez wanted to be fully retired at his age – 69 – but has to juggle painting houses with caring for his disabled wife. So when he walked around the corner from his Bridesburg home to the Point No Point Club to cast his ballot on Tuesday morning, he voted with his wallet in mind, he said.

“The most important thing is the food – the prices, everything is so expensive,” said Lopez. “And the gas. Since Trump took over, it hasn’t been the same. I have to work now.”

Lopez has always trended Democratic, he said, but since Donald Trump took office, he won’t consider a Republican candidate. He enthusiastically voted for Gov. Josh Shapiro, whom he saw as an anti-Trump.

At Monaghan Presbyterian Church in Dillsburg, York County Tuesday morning, the parking lot was as full as on a Sunday morning, with every parking spot taken.

People on hand to vote, rather than worship, crowded the brick sanctuary in the 10th Congressional District near the home of incumbent Republican Congressman Scott Perry, who is in a tight reelection fight against Democratic challenger Janelle Stelson.

The rural community of around 2,400 people has long leaned Republican, as evidenced by what voters with freshly cast ballots said.

A handful of pivotal congressional races in Pennsylvania and New Jersey could well decide the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representative and a menu of other races of interest are on the ballots.

But it wouldn’t be shocking if it turned out that fewer than half of those eligible decided to vote.

In the mid-term elections since 2010, turnout in Pennsylvania has averaged 46%, and 42% in the Garden State, both within range of the national average, according to data assembled by the University of Florida’s U.S. Elections Projects.

New Jersey voters in at least one district on Tuesday will help determine which party controls the U.S. House, in a midterm election widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump.

Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. faces long odds that voters will return him for a third term in the 7th Congressional District in Central and North Jersey, as Democratic momentum builds amid a national backlash against Trump that will potentially elevate former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett to the seat.

Voters’ frustration with the president is so severe that Democrats have expanded their map in the final weeks, increasing their support for Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock’s challenge against four-term Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew in South Jersey’s 2nd District.

Whatever factors may discourage people from going to polling places on Tuesday in the Philly region, the weather won’t be one of them.

The remarkable run of rainless days will reign at least through Tuesday around here, and voting conditions should be excellent in Pennsylvania and New Jersey from the Port of Erie to Cape May Point ferry terminal.

In fact, they should be decent in the majority of the nation, said Jennifer Tate, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center, in College Park, Md.

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send election monitors to polling places in Philadelphia and three other Pennsylvania counties on Election Day. Whether that’s cause for concern or business as usual is up for debate.

It’s not uncommon for the federal government to deploy election monitors. However, the plan has raised alarms due to President Donald Trump’s track record of disputing election results. The Justice Department, which is run by Trump’s former personal attorney Todd Blanche, said the goal is to make sure federal law is followed.

The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections in the commonwealth, shared some of the Justice Department's communications, as well as its plans. Here’s what we know:

Gov. Josh Shapiro closed out his gubernatorial reelection campaign on familiar turf in Jenkintown on Monday night, urging supporters to look toward the future as Democrats aim to retake Congress and the Pennsylvania state Senate on Election Day.

Flanked by his family and numerous elected Democrats, Shapiro reflected on his political beginnings in Montgomery County and implored the crowd to reject what he described as the "chaos," "cruelty," and "corruption" of President Donald Trump's administration.

Standing in the shadow of Jenkintown's Plaza Apartments, Shapiro recalled his first political campaign in 2004, when he ran for state representative and, after knocking thousands of doors, beat a well-known Republican incumbent.

Stacy Garrity, the Republican Party’s nominee for Pennsylvania governor, projected confidence at an Election Day eve rally in Bucks County, despite multiple statewide polls showing her with a double-digit disadvantage in the race.

“The most important message of tonight,” she said to a crowd of about 170 people Monday in Newtown, “we will win this race.”

Garrity, who is challenging popular incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, has struggled to find her footing in the gubernatorial race and build a strong war chest to match Shapiro’s massive haul.

Pennsylvania, can you believe it? It’s here. Voters across the Keystone State are casting their ballots in the midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power in Harrisburg and Washington.

Control of the U.S. House could come down to a few key Pennsylvania congressional districts, including one in the Philly suburbs. And the election will determine whether Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro holds onto the governor’s office as he faces a challenge from Republican Stacy Garrity.

Pennsylvanians will also make their voices heard in state House elections and state Senate races as Democrats vie for their first trifecta in Harrisburg in decades. The majority in the state Senate will likely come down to a handful of competitive races in the eastern half of the state.