For more updates on the 2022 Pennsylvania primary, follow along with our live coverage.

Tuesday’s primary election — one of Pennsylvania’s most consequential in recent years — brought thousands of voters to the region’s polls in an understated election day showing.

Three of the four major races were called Tuesday evening: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman won the Democratic Senate primary, State Sen. Doug Mastriano won the Republican nomination for governor, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who ran unopposed, won the Democratic nomination.

That left the tight Republican race for U.S. Senate to be called, with former hedge fund CEO David McCormick and celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz in a virtual tie, and conservative commentator Kathy Barnette trailing both.

“The race for Senate in Pennsylvania is too early to call, with the candidates separated by a fraction of a percentage point and an estimated tens of thousands of ballots still left to count,” an Associated Press statement said.

With both a Senate seat and the governor’s office up for grabs in 2022, the primary election was being closely watched not just in Pennsylvania but nationwide. Across the region, voters in both parties said they saw the primary as high-stakes for a nation in turmoil, and the races seemed like referenda on the parties’ directions.

Read more of our coverage from Tuesday’s primary:

Once again, a major Pennsylvania election ended without clear answers on election night. The Republican Senate primary was too early to call.

Mehmet Oz and David McCormick were virtually tied with around 95% of votes counted, and the race was so close that it appeared likely to head to an automatic recount no matter who’s ahead when the initial tally is done.

Both Oz and McCormick wrapped up their campaign parties by saying they didn’t expect a clear outcome Tuesday night, though each predicted they’d win in the end.

They each won around 31% of the GOP vote, with Oz, the celebrity surgeon known as “Dr. Oz,” leading by about around 1,000 votes as of 1:30 a.m. Oz’s lead amounted to a .01 percentage point advantage over McCormick, an Army veteran and former hedge fund CEO. Pennsylvania requires an automatic recount if the final margin for a statewide race is within .05% of the total vote, which appears almost certain to be the case.

There were still thousands of votes waiting to be counted, including mail ballots, overseas and military ballots and provisional ballots. It was unclear how long it would take to finish counting all the remaining votes.

Kathy Barnette, the hard-right candidate who surged in the campaign’s final days, was in third place but well off the top two, with around 25% of the vote.

”We’re not going to have a result tonight. When all of the votes are tallied, I am confident we will win,” Oz said at the Newtown Athletic Club.

Minutes earlier McCormick delivered a similar message to his supporters in Pittsburgh.

”Unfortunately we’re not going to have a resolution tonight, but we can see the path ahead. We can see victory ahead,” he said.

It was unclear early Wednesday how quickly the remaining ballots would be counted. Any recount could take weeks to resolve.

— Jonathan Tamari

Pennsylvania election law requires an automatic recount if the difference between the top two candidates for a statewide office is 0.5% of the vote or less.

Such a recount has been triggered five times since the law was enacted in 2004 — most recently in the Commonwealth Court race last November. Republican Senate candidates Mehmet Oz and David McCormick were well within 0.5% of the counted vote as of early Wednesday morning, with the vast majority of votes counted.

If that gap doesn’t widen enough as the final votes are counted, the race may head toward recount territory.

Who decides if there’s a recount?

Recounts are required by Pennsylvania law, which requires the secretary of state to order a recount by 5 p.m. the second Thursday after the election.That would be Thursday of next week, or May 26.

When does a recount happen?

To kick off a recount, the secretary of state provides a 24-hour notice to candidates.The recount must be scheduled to be held by the third Wednesday following election day, which in this case would be June 1.

The recount would need to be complete by noon of the following Tuesday, or June 7.Counties have to submit recount results to the Department of State by noon the next day, or June 8, and the secretary then publishes the results.

How long does a recount take?

Given the steps listed above, it can take a little over three weeks after election day for the recount results to be published.

In last fall’s election, the recount was completed and the results were published on Nov. 24, 22 days after the Nov. 2 Election Day.

Does a recount have to happen?

No. The second-place candidate can decline a recount. That request must be made in writing and sent to the secretary of state by noon of the second Wednesday after election day, which in this case would be May 25.

Of the five recounts that have been triggered, two of them were declined by the losing candidate.

— Jonathan Lai

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz told supporters late Tuesday night that his race against David McCormick was too close to call.

“We’re not going to have a result tonight. When all of the votes are tallied, I am confident we will win,” Oz said to applause.

He told the crowd gathered for him at the Newtown Athletic Club to go home and rest up.

“What did you expect? Everything about this campaign has been tight,” he said.

— Sean Collins Walsh

Facing four ballot questions in the primary election Tuesday, Philadelphia voters overwhelmingly approved to expand the city’s zoning board, bolster its housing commission, and remove gender-based language from its constitution-like operating documents.

Question 1: Increasing the number of members on the Zoning Board ✅

Questions 2 and 3: Removing gendered language ✅

Question 4: The future of the Fair Housing Commission ✅

» READ MORE: Philly voters vote yes to expand zoning board and remove gendered language from city charter

— Max Marin

Republican Senate candidate David McCormick told supporters late Tuesday that the election wouldn’t be resolved tonight, but assured supporters: “We’re gonna win this campaign.”

“Right now, we have tens of thousands of mail-in ballots that have not been counted that are gonna need to be counted beginning tomorrow,” he told several dozen friends and family just after 11:30 p.m. “So unfortunately we’re not going to have a resolution tonight, but we can see the path ahead. We can see victory ahead.”

McCormick was speaking to a room of attendees at an election night party at a Pittsburgh hotel. He and rival Mehmet Oz appeared locked in a dead heat late into the night.

— Anna Orso

The GOP Senate race has produced the cliff-hanger we long expected.

As of 11:30 p.m. we can pretty safely say it won’t be Kathy Barnette on the ballot, but Mehmet Oz and David McCormick were locked in an excruciatingly tight race with more than 95% of the vote counted.

McCormick led by about .02 percentage points, but there were still votes to be counted, including substantial shares in Delaware and Bucks counties.

Neither candidate was giving up as the count continued into the night.Barnette had around 24% of the vote, while the top two were around 31%, suggesting that either her late surge wasn’t quite as strong as polls indicated, or that her rivals were able to stop her momentum with some of the questions they raised in the campaign’s final days.

— Jonathan Tamari

Carrie DelRosso, a western Pennsylvania legislator who upset Democratic State Rep. Frank Dermody in 2020, has won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.

She will oppose Democrat Austin Davis, who is vying to become the first Black person to hold that position, in November.

DelRosso prevailed against eight challengers in a field that included Rick Saccone, a four-term legislator, and Teddy Daniels, a strong supporter of former President Donald J. Trump.

— Anthony R. Wood

U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb sent a statement out Tuesday night after not attending an election night party.

“I entered this campaign knowing it would be tough, but I believed Democratic voters in Pennsylvania deserved a primary campaign with a real debate focused on the issues so that we win in November,” Lamb said.

“Today, voters made it clear that John Fetterman is their choice to carry that effort forward.”

Lamb said he respect that decision, congratulated Fetterman on his victory and wished him a speedy recovery from his stroke.

Lamb said he’d do “everything I can to help Democrats win in,” in the general election.

“Our entire democracy is on the line in November. Democrats need to be unequivocally united in our defense of this democracy, and we will be. John’s vote in the Senate is essential to protect this democracy, and he will have my vote in November,” he said.

— Julia Terruso

As the televisions in his West Chester bar headquarters blared the news of Doug Mastriano’s primary win Tuesday evening, Bill McSwain stepped up to the podium, thanking his family, friends and campaign staff in attendance for “one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

Over a live band cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl,” McSwain told the group of around three dozen supporters that he had just finished congratulating Mastriano on his gubernatorial primary win.

“Anybody can be a good winner,” McSwain said. “What matters is how we conduct ourselves when we face adversity, when life gives us something that we might not choose for ourselves. And when that happens, we have to accept this disappointment. But we hold our heads high. We remain true to ourselves. We stick with our principles, and we act with dignity and honor. And that’s what I think we need in politics and that’s why I’m in it.”

“While I wish I were giving a different speech tonight, the people of Pennsylvania have spoken, and I will always respect the will of the great people of Pennsylvania.”

McSwain, a former U.S. attorney, told his supporters that it was “the solid core of goodness, the people of Pennsylvania” that drove him to run for governor.

“My heart is full of gratitude for all the amazing Pennsylvanians that I have been able to meet as I’ve traveled all over the state and I got into this race because I love Pennsylvania,” McSwain said. “And after this campaign, I can tell all of you that I love it even more. Behind every hand I was honored to shake in this campaign was a person a family a neighborhood, a community,”

McSwain thanked Terri O’Connor and Maureen Faulkner — wives of Philadelphia police officers James O’Connor and Daniel Faulkner killed while on duty — for standing with him in his campaign. Like McSwain, both women have publicly railed against progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, whom McSwain has derisively deemed “Uncle Larry.”

“Regardless of many political results, their husbands fought for justice every day and paid the ultimate sacrifice. It was my privilege to be able to stand with them and with their families,” McSwain said.

“The law-abiding, freedom-loving, hardworking Pennsylvanians will always, always define our state and our values will endure and outlast any campaign,” McSwain told his supporters, vowing to “continue to be involved in public and community service.

“There is no quit in me, because there’s no quit in Pennsylvanians.”

— Oona Goodin-Smith

Doug Mastriano first burst onto the national scene on Nov. 25, 2020, when he led a hearing in Gettysburg during which aggrieved Republican voters, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump himself aired baseless allegations of fraud in the presidential election.

But Mastriano, a GOP state senator from Franklin County, couldn’t have pulled that off by himself: A colleague, State Sen. Dave Argall, let Mastriano use the panel he chaired to host the hearing.

It was a harbinger of things to come.

For weeks leading up to Mastriano’s victory Tuesday in the Republican primary for Pennsylvania governor, GOP insiders scrambled to halt his rise, pointed fingers, and generally scratched their heads over how the party let a candidate they see as unelectable in November become the nominee.

But Mastriano didn’t stage a hostile takeover of the Pennsylvania GOP so much as the party — lawmakers, activists, and candidates — followed his lead.

Instead of denouncing or rebutting Mastriano’s conspiracy theories, Republican leaders repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election, sometimes justifying their actions by pointing to the very voter concerns they had helped fan.

Even now, lawmakers and party officials who oppose his candidacy don’t denounce Mastriano or his ideas — they simply argue he can’t win a general election. In TV ads, a dark-money group attacking Mastriano criticized him for not going far enough to help Trump — saying he failed to investigate the election and noting his vote for the law that expanded mail voting.

“The Republican Party is the Mastriano-Trump party in Pennsylvania. And it’s not just a small fringe of people that are following that vision,” said Ethan Demme, a former Lancaster GOP official who left the party after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and is now Pennsylvania chair for the third-party Serve America Movement.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania Republicans tried to stop Doug Mastriano. But first they followed him.

— Andrew Seidman

Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro Tuesday portrayed his newly chosen Republican rival, Doug Mastriano, as “the most extreme gubernatorial candidate in the country.”

“He would ban abortion, end vote by mail, and rip away our freedoms,” he tweeted after Mastriano was declared the winner in the GOP contest.

For his part, Mastriano said, “Josh Shapiro is backed by dark money, by unions, corruption.”

— Anthony R. Wood and Jason Nark

Supporters of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz are watching election returns come in on Fox News with a mix of optimism and anxiety at his watch party in Newtown.

Franco D’Andrea, 56, said that he was “feeling confident” Oz would win despite his deficit in early returns because many of the first results to come in are from western Pennsylvania, while Oz’s ties to the state are stronger in the east.

“I think he can win the election in November,” said D’Andrea, who lives in Horsham. “If we pick a weak Republican now, it’s not a good situation.”

While some candidates hold large rallies on election night, Oz’s event is relatively low-key, with roughly 50 supporters and about as many journalists gathered in a room at the Newtown Athletic Club.

— Sean Collins Walsh

After being introduced by his wife, Rebbie, as the GOP nominee for governor, Mastriano took the stage, his first remarks reflecting the night’s spiritual overtunes.

“God is good, all the time,” he told the raucous crowd.

Then Mastriano quickly launched into an attack on the shutdowns and mandates that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic, vowing to end them all on “day one.” He also said he would not allow transgender athletes to switch sports or use their preferred bathrooms.

“On day one, CRT is over,” he said of critical race theory.

Mastiano reveled in being considered an outsider, a candidate the Republican establishment actively worked against. He said Josh Shapiro was backed by “dark money” and “corruption.”

“There’s this movement here that’s going to shock the state here on November 8,” he said.

Mastriano told his supporters to take a few days off, before saluting them and leaving the stage. Queen’s “We are the Champions” played as he left.

— Jason Nark

Kathy Barnette took the stage at her party in Lancaster County, surrounded by family and campaign staff, to deliver what sure sounded a lot like a concession speech. Though, she insisted that wasn’t what it was.

“I’m not conceding,” she said to the cheering crowd, after thanking her supporters and staff for putting up a “good fight” over the last 13 months. To the reporters gathered at the back of the room, she added “So don’t report it.”

As the incoming vote count showed Barnette trailing behind primary opponents David McCormick and Mehmet Oz with more than 90% of the vote counted, Barnette addressed the crowd for roughly 10 minutes.

She relived her campaign highlights, lashed out at the attacks she’s received from the right and the left in recent days, and highlighted her journey from growing up “a little Black girl” on an Alabama farm to Senate candidate – a story that has drawn supporters to her in recent days.

“I have the blood of slaves coursing through my veins,” she said. “I know the good, the bad, the downright despicable things that have happened in this country. And yet, I stand here saying I’m so proud to be an American.”

She added: “Do not be discouraged. We have a country to save.”

— Jeremy Roebuck

“Many Republicans are frustrated with the way this primary played out,” former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta told a crowd that briefly cheered his entry but then turned subdued. “Party leaders, elected officials, and conservative organizations failed to take steps to prevent such a large field from forming. But one thing we can all agree on is that Josh Shapiro cannot be the next governor of Pennsylvania.”

Barletta gave a short speech, thanking staff and family for their support and listing a run-down of issues he would have focused on if elected — including energy policy, election integrity, and school choice. He declined to answer questions.

”Please don’t feel sorry for me tonight. I was blessed with the greatest opportunity in the world to serve the great people of Pennsylvania. I leave this stage with no regrets.”

— Chris Brennan

The mood at Kathy Barnette’s party in Lancaster County has grown noticeably more downbeat in the last half hour, as more and more of the vote count has come in, showing her trailing opponents David McCormick and Mehmet Oz.

Just hours earlier, the party’s soundtrack was blasting old school soul music and hip hop hits and Barnette was dancing along with a group of teens to the “Macarena” and “Cotton Eyed Joe.”

Now, the tunes have switched almost entirely to plaintive praise music.

A group of more than two dozen people has gathered around Barnette in a prayer circle, singing and raising their hands in the air.

— Jeremy Roebuck

With strong support from gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro, Austin Davis, the first Black person from his Allegheny County district to serve as a state representative, has won the right to be Shapiro’s running mate.

In the lieutenant governor’s race, Davis, who grew up in the Pittsburgh area, defeated Brian Sims, an attorney who once served as a counsel at the Philadelphia Bar Association and was the first openly gay member of the General Assembly, and Ray Sosa, a Montgomery County banker who is a native of Puerto Rico and was the first Latinx person to run for lieutenant governor, losing to John Fetterman in 2018.

Davis would be the state’s first Black lieutenant governor if elected.

— Anthony R. Wood

Gisele Fetterman gave the closing night speech at her husband’s election night party, thanking the crowd for their work and setting the stage for a general election battle that could be one of the most competitive and closely watched in the country.

“John is the official Democratic nominee,” she said to cheers.

“This race we’re running, it’s a race for the future of every community across Pennsylvania. For every small town, for every person who calls those small towns home and for every person who’s considered leaving because they didn’t see enough opportunities…It’s a race for a better Pennsylvania and for a better country. And it’s a race that together. We will win in November.”

She addressed “the elephant in the room, which is that my husband John Fetterman is not in the room,” telling the crowd he was recovering well from the stroke he suffered Friday, which required doctors to insert a pacemaker and defibrillator Tuesday.

Fetterman appeared on the big screen briefly, from the hospital saying simply “thank you so much for everything. From my heart, thank you for everything.”

“How cute is he?” she asked after the cameo.

She also spoke about her husband’s unconventional style that attracted so many to his campaign. He was winning 2:1 against his closet rival, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb as of 9:45 p.m.

“It’s not just that John looks nothing like a politician,” she said. “It’s because John doesn’t act like one. At heart, he’s still that hardworking, scrappy, small town mayor.”

After the speeches, Gisele Fetterman talked to the press about fending off questions about her husband’s health in the general election.

“I think anyone who would imply that he would be unfit to serve because of this procedure, is also, I think offending millions of Americans who have pacemakers,” she said.

“And it’s almost ablest, you know? I think he’s going to have a full thriving life, he’s going to be able to do the same work as anyone else. But the reality is families come with health scares, that is a very American thing. What he’s gonna want to fight for is to make sure that everyone would have access to the same care that he was able to receive anywhere you live in the country, whatever insurance you have, or don’t.”

— Julia Terruso

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta’s election night party at the basement of the Divine Lorraine Hotel had a dozen supporters when Lt. Gov. John Fetterman was named the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.

Pop and disco music filled the room as the results rolled in and a television showed results in the corner.

At around 9:30 p.m., Kenyatta addressed his supporters in a triumphant tone, touting the milestones achieved Tuesday, including the first time an openly gay person of color was on the ballot.

“Each time one of us stands up, it inspires another person to stand up as well,” said Kenyatta encouraging people to run for office. “Each one of us adds pressure to a status quo.”

Kenyatta said he called Fetterman committing his support and asked those in the room to do the same.

“We had a tough family conversation, but now this conversation is a choice,” said Kenyatta, firing up Democrats, warning them of the Republican alternative.

Campaign staffers and members of the Working Families Party, including Councilmenber Kendra Brooks, filled the room.

Supporter Melvin Calhoun, 60, said he was happy with the campaign he put up.

“I’m not mad,” he said. “I’m going to keep following his career.”

— Ximena Conde

Bucks County U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has won his primary race to seek a fourth term in Congress.

Fitzpatrick defeated challenger Alex Entin, who had been endorsed by Firearm Owners Against Crime.

Fitzpatrick, who had kept his distance from then-President Donald Trump, was the only congressional Republican in the Philadelphia region who had survived the “blue wave” of the 2018 elections when three Democratic women flipped Republican-held seats in the Philadelphia suburbs.

— Anthony R. Wood

Doug Mastriano, a far-right state senator and leading voice in Pennsylvania’s election denial movement who drew national attention for his efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat, has won the Republican nomination for governor, the Associated Press projects.

Mastriano, 58, prevailed in Tuesday’s nine-candidate primary election despite a frantic 11th-hour push by some Pennsylvania GOP insiders to rally behind an alternative and avert what they fear will be certain defeat in November to state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee. Mastriano got a late boost over the weekend, when Trump endorsed him.

A retired Army colonel who has enjoyed a rapid political ascent since his election to a south-central Pennsylvania state Senate seat in 2019, Mastriano has proposed banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions. He has called for eliminating property taxes, expanding charter schools, and banning “critical race theory” in schools.

And as a leading election denier in the state, he has pledged to eliminate contracts with “compromised voting machine companies” and said during a debate that he wants all 9 million registered voters in the state to re-register — an idea that would appear to run afoul of federal law.

He was in Washington for the rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, though he has said he left the area before things turned violent. As governor, he would have the power to appoint Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, who would oversee how votes are cast and counted in the 2024 election.

» READ MORE: Doug Mastriano has won the GOP primary for Pa. governor after a campaign fueled by election lies

— Andrew Seidman and Chris Brennan

U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans has easily toppled his Democratic challenger in Pennsylvania’s 3rd congressional district.

The incumbent Democrat led by a nearly 4-to-1 vote margin over Alexandra Hunt when the Associated Press called the race at 9:41 p.m.

A Northwest Philadelphia native, Evans spent 18 terms in the Pennsylvania House before went to Washington in 2016, where he represents the majority-Black district that spans nearly all of Philadelphia west of Broad Street.

Hunt, a 29-year-old public health researcher originally from New York, gained traction online by creating an OnlyFans account for her campaign and pushing progressive agenda items like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.

No Republican candidate appeared on the ballot for the district, meaning Evans will likely run unopposed in the November general election.

— Max Marin

A Democratic Philadelphia ward leader allegedly hospitalized a committeeperson after a shoving match sparked by a primary day dispute over stolen campaign signs.

Maureen Jenkins, a 63-year old Democratic committeeperson, was putting up signs in support of 203rd district state house candidate Heather Miller outside of a polling place at Carnell Elementary School, in Oxford Circle, Tuesday morning. As she was placing the signs, Jenkins says she observed 53rd Ward Leader Ralph Lett, 71, ripping down other signs supporting Miller.

Jenkins said that when she confronted Lett, who is backing a rival candidate, he became hostile.

“I said, ‘Ralph, why are you doing that? It’s two little signs,” she recalled. “He seemed very angry. I said, ‘Give me my signs back.’ So, he pulled them back and then he pushed them at me. And I flew.”

Jenkins said she hit the sidewalk so hard, she injured her hand and began bleeding. She said Lett told onlookers that she had tried to punch him. Jenkins said a judge of elections called for an ambulance.

The Philadelphia Police Department confirmed that Northeast Detectives were investigating the incident. But, according to a police report, Jenkins may have pushed Lett first. The report states Lett pushed her back, causing her to fall.

According to police, Jenkins was transported to Temple University Hospital’s Jeanes Campus with “pain in her left hands.” Jenkins said doctors later told her she had fractured bones in her left hand.

Lett, reached by phone Tuesday evening, confirmed “police were called” but declined to discuss details of the incident.

“I’m not at liberty to talk about that,” he said. “Right now, I’m not able to answer any questions, I have to be under the advisement of my attorney.”

» READ MORE: A Philly ward leader got in a shoving match with a committeeperson, who was later hospitalized with broken hand

— Ryan W. Briggs and Max Marin

Just after 9:15 p.m., a beaming Bill McSwain arrived to his election night headquarters on the upper floor of Barnaby’s in West Chester, greeting supporters, friends and family with smiles and hugs as Fox News played on a wall of bar televisions, displaying the latest primary results.

“No one outworks Bill,” said his longtime friend, Glenn Surowiec, describing the former U.S. Attorney as a great Little League coach, friend, and West Chester loyalist who cares deeply about his state.

Surowiec said he doesn’t describe himself as a “political person,” but said he spent the past weekend going door-to-door campaigning for McSwain in neighboring East Bradford. “What I try to remind them is that if they really want to win in November, I think Bill probably gives the Republicans the best chance,” he said.

As results continued to roll in on the televisions, showing Mastriano leading with around 30% of precincts reporting, Surowiec shrugged. “I’m an optimist,” he said. “If the polls could have been wrong in 2016, who’s to say what could happen?”

— Oona Goodin-Smith

President Joe Biden saluted Lt. Gov. John Fetterman as someone who “understands that working class families” have been “dealt out for far too long” and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey quickly endorsed Fetterman after staying neutral in his party’s primary.

Here are their statements Tuesday night:

Biden:

Casey:

— Jonathan Tamari

Pennsylvania’s top elections official said Tuesday night that the primary election had gone smoothly, with no widespread issues that affected multiple counties.

“We saw democracy in action today in Pennsylvania,” said Leigh M. Chapman, acting secretary of state.

Two counties did have problems, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State, which runs elections: Problems with new electronic poll books in Berks County led to long lines, with a court extending voting by an hour, and a printer error meant 22,000 mail ballots in Lancaster County will have to be duplicated to be scanned, a multi-day process.

Chapman also noted the “continued popularity of mail voting,” with about 900,000 mail ballots requested this election.

— Jonathan Lai

Mike Driscoll has won the special election for the City Council seat vacated by Bobby Henon, who resigned in January after being convicted on federal corruption charges.

Driscoll, a Democratic state representative, won the Lower Northeast Philadelphia-based 6th Council District without having to run a race in what is known as a “magic seat” election.

In Philadelphia, ward leaders choose their parties’ nominees for special elections. Driscoll won the support of Democratic ward leaders, and Republicans never chose a candidate.

Although he coasted to victory Tuesday, Driscoll will have to defend his seat in next year’s municipal election, when all 17 Council seats and an open mayoral race will be on the ballot.

— Sean Collins Walsh

Former Eagles safety Jack Brewer described Senate candidate Kathy Barnette as “anointed by God” and vowed that her supporters would teach the media “the meaning of spiritual warfare” as he delivered a sermon-like speech to the crowd at her results watching party in Elizabethtown.

“I don’t know that I’ve seen a politician stand up for their faith as hard as I’ve seen my good friend Kathy Barnette,” said Brewer, who has campaigned with Barnette in the waning days of the race. “The woman we are supporting is anointed by God.”

Brewer’s speech was the most overtly religious so far in a series of speakers who have all hailed Barnette standing up for Christian faith and values. Comparing her to the Biblical heroine Esther, Brewer credited her steadfastness for her campaign’ to her to remaining constant amid attacks from the left and the right.

In recent days, primary opponents Mehmet Oz and David McCormick – and even President Trump -- have questioned Barnette’s electability, pointing to her past social media posts espousing homophobic and anti-Muslim views. She’s dismissed those attacks describing her Tweets as not fully formed thoughts.

“One day she’s a leftist, and the next day she’s a right-wing extremist,” said Brewer. “It’s time to teach the media what spiritual warfare looks like.”

And as 9 o’clock rolled around and Sean Hannity – who has led the charge on Fox News questioning Barnette’s social media activity – appeared on the big screens. The crowd responded with a round of “boos.”

— Jeremy Roebuck

Doug Mastriano took the stage shortly after 9 p.m. and focused his early remarks on the media.

He felt a kinship with William Penn, the state’s namesake. He said Penn was also attacked by the media for his beliefs.

“We’re under siege now. The media doesn’t like groups of us who believe certain things.” he said. “Everyone in the room should believe what we want and we should not be mocked for that.”

— Jason Nark

At former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta’s election night party about 50 people gathered at the Pines Eatery & Spirits, a restaurant in the center of this town where he was once mayor.

They noshed on a buffet of Italian food while Fox News broadcast election results in several states, including Pennsylvania, and classic rock like “Taking Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive played in the background.

Barletta had not appeared by 9 p.m., an hour after the polls closed.

— Chris Brennan

Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate David McCormick said Tuesday night as results rolled in that he’s been “racing to the finish line.”

Speaking briefly to an election night party at a whiskey bar inside a Pittsburgh hotel, McCormick welcomed the crowd of family and friends who chanted “Dave! Dave! Dave!” upon his arrival. He shook hands with supporters and hugged friends while Fox News coverage of the early returns played on big-screen televisions.

“We’re so happy [to be] with family and friends, and we’ve been racing to the finish line, so we’re taking a breath here,” said McCormick, standing alongside his wife, Dina Powell McCormick. “We’re happy to be with you all and looking forward to a great evening.”

Alongside McCormick’s friends and family was a longtime supporter, Sean Parnell, the former Republican Senate candidate who was an early favorite and endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Parnell dropped out of the race following abuse allegations and has since aggressively campaigned for McCormick.

McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO and a West Point graduate, was also seen as an early favorite because of his deep pockets and extensive resume. His campaign was largely funded by his personal fortune and those of his wealthy allies.

He spent much of the campaign polling in the top tier of the field along with Mehmet Oz, a celebrity surgeon. A third candidate, conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, surged late in the campaign and the race appeared a three-way dead heat heading into Election Day.

Pitching himself as running on an “America First” agenda, McCormick courted an endorsement from Trump, but that ultimately went to Oz. Trump earlier this month appeared at a rally with Oz and blasted McCormick as a “liberal Wall Street Republican” whose “not MAGA.”

McCormick spoke to reporters earlier in the day Tuesday at his polling place on the campus of Chatham University in Pittsburgh, saying he felt “incredible energy” and was convinced he could win over undecided voters.

“They know this election counts so much and they’re asking who shares their conservative values, who’s going to go fight for them, [and] who can win in November,” he said, “because the stakes are so high for this election.”

— Anna Orso

The crowd at the Fetterman election night rally erupted in cheers as MSNBC called the race for him shortly before 9 p.m.

They waved yellow Fetterman towels in the air and jumped up and down.

Guy Rocco, a volunteer at the free store in Braddock addressed the crowd.

“He’ll be a different type of Senator,” Rocco said. “He’s the salt of the earth. He’s authentic. He’s real and he’s brutally honest and he’ll tell him it like it is. He’s Pennsylvania. That right there is why he won tonight and that’s why he’ll win in November.”

Dennis and Lee Horton, whose life sentences were commuted by the Board of Pardons in 2020, addressed the crowd and told them their story, crediting Fetterman in large part with their freedom today. The two men were sentenced to life in prison for a murder they’ve maintained they were innocent of.

“This man saved our lives,” Dennis Horton said, rousing the crowd as he repeated: “I don’t think you all hear this, this man saved our lives when no one was watching!”

Phil Heasley, 31, of Butler volunteered for both Fetterman’s 2016 campaign and this one, said he felt “ecstatic,” as he watched the speakers.

“I have goosebumps right now,” he said from the crowd. “This is someone who always showed up or us and now it’s our time to show up for him. It’d be great if he were here but we’re gonna raise the roof as if he was.”

— Julia Terruso

At Bill McSwain’s election night headquarters at Barnaby’s in West Chester, around four dozen supporters wearing “McSwain for Governor” vests, hats, pins, and holding McSwain koozies filled the bar just before 9 p.m., animatedly chatting over beers and appetizers.

A podium flanked by American and Pennsylvania flags stood in one corner of the room as supporters waited for the former U.S. Attorney’s arrival.

On the bar televisions, they watched the Phillies-Padres game and early election results roll in on Fox News, eliciting a smattering of cheers as McSwain led the primary polls with around 10% of precincts reporting.

— Oona Goodin-Smith

John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor whose shorts- and scowl-wearing persona made him something of a political celebrity, has won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, the Associated Press projects.

Fetterman, who entered the race as the Democratic front-runner early last year and only grew his advantage over time, will face the winner of the Republican primary in one of the most critical Senate races in the country.

As returns rolled in, Fetterman was in a Lancaster hospital, where he was recovering from a stroke he suffered just four days before the primary. His campaign said Tuesday that he was undergoing a procedure to get a pacemaker to regulate his heart rate.

The campaign, which didn’t respond to several request to interview Fetterman’s doctors, has said doctors reversed the stroke in time to prevent any cognitive damage, and that he’s expected to make a full recovery.

Fetterman voted via emergency absentee ballot Tuesday and was expected to remain in the hospital for several days.

» READ MORE: John Fetterman won the Democratic Senate primary, with a promise to unite progressives and rural Pa.

— Julia Terruso and Ximena Conde

Jenna Ellis, a former Trump legal adviser, said a Shapiro victory would be “100 times worse” than Governor Wolf, one led by tyrannical rule and executive order. She called Sean Feucht, a Christian singer, up to the stage to pray over Mastriano and his wife.

“Lord, we thank you tonight for this family,” he prayed. “Lord, I thank you that no smear campaign is going to bring them down.”

Most of the several hundred supporters in the banquet hall, raised their hands toward the ceiling

— Jason Nark

Mehmet Oz is hosting his primary results watch party at the Newtown Athletic Club, an upscale Bucks County fitness facility owned by a locally prominent and controversial supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Jim Worthington, who owns “the NAC,” as it is known in Newtown, faced local backlash after attending Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C., which preceded the insurrection at the Capitol that day. A group he founded, People4Trump, provided buses for others to attend the rally as well.

Worthington has said neither he nor others in his group were present when Trump supporters illegally entered the Capitol and destroyed public property, leading to scores of arrests.

— Sean Collins Walsh

After securing the Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday, Attorney General Josh Shapiro predicted he would win in November “no matter which dangerous extremist we’re against.”

Shapiro, the first non-incumbent to run unopposed for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination since 1930, tweeted, “the stakes are too damn high for anything but a victory.”

In the contested Republican primary, nine candidates were vying for the nomination, including state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has been endorsed by President Donald J. Trump, and Lou Barletta, a former member of Congress.

Shapiro, who said he was “humbled and honored” by his win, said, “the general election starts now.”

Shapiro, who tested positive for COVID-19, canceled campaign-rally appearances in Johnstown and Pittsburgh.

— Anthony R. Wood

Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano arrived at the banquet facility just after 8 p.m. with his wife, Rebbie, wearing his Operation Desert Storm hat. Sean Feucht, a Christian musician, sang while Mastriano mingled with supporters.

A career Army officer, Mastriano grew his following in recent years in the simplest way: constant Facebook Live streams. He streamed from the statehouse in Harrisburg, in front of his Christmas tree, and in his car, often several times per day.

One supporter asked Mastriano to sign her “Bring PA Back” shirt.

“God is good,” he told her.

— Jason Nark

Republican Senate candidate Kathy Barnette arrived to whoops and cheers from a crowd of a supporters at her results watching party in Lancaster County.

“Y’all are so well behaved,” said Barnette, dressed in a white pant suit and waving at supporters to keep cheering. “Thank you for coming. Let’s party.”

Her arrival at the picturesque Star Barn in Elizabethtown came just before polls closed across the state and as supporters were still trickling into the half-empty venue.

As gospel tunes alternated with hip-hop over the speakers and Fox News blared on the big screens, she worked the crowd shaking hands and thanking supporters in everything from tuxedos to cowboy hats, who were preparing to watch what could be one of the night’s closest contests.

Recent polling has shown a late-stage surge for Barnette, of Montgomery County, against the two men who have led the race for most of the campaign — Mehmet Oz and David McCormick.

Some of the party’s attendees, who declined to give their name, said they’d decided only relatively recently to cast their vote in Barnette’s favor but said their belief in her was no less enthusiastic.

Win or lose, said David Abel, owner of the Star Barn, called Barnette his “hero.”

“She persevered in this race,” he said. “She spoke truth to the people’s hearts in Pennsylvania. She stood true to our values.”

— Jeremy Roebuck

Attorney General Josh Shapiro – the first non-incumbent to run unopposed in a Democratic gubernatorial primary since 1930 – has secured the party’s nomination for the state’s highest office.

Shapiro, 48, who lives in Abington Township and is a former chair of the Montgomery County Commissioners, was able to win endorsements and raise money without ever even announcing his candidacy.

It helped that he had won statewide elections convincingly in 2016 and 2020.

Historically, Democratic gubernatorial primaries have been contentious, involving multiple candidates.

Not since 1930 had a Democrat won the nomination without opposition in the primary. That year the candidate was John H. Hemphill of West Chester, who was anti-Prohibition. He was defeated in the General Election by Republican Gifford Pynchot, a staunch Prohibitionist and an architect of Pennsylvania’s liquor laws.

— Anthony R. Wood and Andrew Seidman

At Doug Mastriano’s election night headquarters in a Chambersburg restaurant and banquet hall, monitors showed videos of Mastriano speaking to the public along with Mike Lindell, CEO of My Pillow and a prominent 2020 election denier. A live band sang about Jesus and praise hours before Mastriano’s arrival.

An Inquirer profile from earlier this month described him as a the “epitome of a resurgent movement of Christian nationalism,” in which followers believe the country was founded as a Christian nation whose divine mission is under threat.

“Holy spirit come rest on us,” the band sang.

Supporters began arriving just after 7 p.m. Many wore shirts with “Bring PA Back” on the front. A group of speakers addressed the “Mastriano army.”

“We are going to make history together and we are so blessed you’ve chosen to make history with us,” said Keyla Salas, from Mastrianos’s Latino outreach group.

Speaker Steve Turley told the crowd they’d be criticized by media outlets, like “the Philadelphia Inquirer and CNN” in coming months.

“The era of the patriot has begun,” Turley said.

Unlike recent weeks, in which some members of the press were barred from attending Mastriano’s rallies, several dozen journalists lined the back wall of the banquet hall, sequestered off by a rope.

— Jason Nark

Mike Serluco, 46, a mechanic, got his vote in at the Aston Community Center shortly before polls closed at 8.

A Republican, Serluco said he voted for Oz and Mastriano because they were endorsed by Trump.

He said the biggest issues for him are the border, inflation, and the Constitution.

“I feel like our Constitution is being trampled on,” he said. “It’s bad.”

Serluco said he voted by mail in the last election because of COVID-19, but made it a point to come in person this year.

“The last time I voted for President they lost my ballot and it didn’t get counted,” he said. “I’m never doing that again.”

— Stephanie Farr

No matter how quickly Pennsylvania counties open and count mail ballots on election day, there will always be some that have to be counted afterward.

As it is, counties aren’t allowed to begin counting ballots until 7 a.m. on election day, despite pleas from county officials from both parties to change that. A handful of counties choose not to touch the ballots until the day after election day anyway, saying they have to focus on running the in-person election.

But even if every county opened their mail ballots at 7 a.m., and had as many staffers and machines as they could get, there would still be some ballots that wouldn’t be counted until afterward. Here’s why:

And other than the mail ballots, there are still other votes that will need to be counted, such as provisional ballots, the last-chance paper ballots that are the final votes counted once elections officials investigate each one to ensure they are legitimate.

So even as the bulk of the vote is counted Tuesday, and the vast majority will be in within a few days, the last votes take time to get counted. That time means the process is working — and that county elections officials are working to make sure all legitimate votes are counted.

— Jonathan Lai

At East Goshen Elementary School in Chester County Tuesday evening, campaign literature and sample ballots fluttered in the spring breeze as an after-work stream of voters trickled through the gymnasium.

“These primaries are quiet,” said Republican Committeeperson Kathy Buonnano. In November’s statewide election, she said, the Republican-leaning precinct saw a significant jump in voter turnout, “but today, I think, we’re just going steady at the pace.”

The committee’s only endorsement was for former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain — a decision Buonnano said was made before an 11th-hour push from Pennsylvania Republicans to rally behind Lou Barletta in attempts to defeat primary front-runner Doug Mastriano.

Buonnano declined to say who she voted for, but said her main considerations center around being pro-life, the economy, energy, and keeping jobs in Pennsylvania.

A couple exiting the polls who voted Republican but declined to give their names said they voted Tuesday based on their dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden. “He’s killing this country,” said one man. “We need to make changes in our country to bring it back to what our country should be.”

Rob Falcone, a conservative, said he spent a lot of time carefully considering his choices in the crowded primary before landing on his votes for Kathy Barnette for senate and McSwain for governor.

Although he liked some of former President Donald Trump’s policies, Falcone said he was turned off by his personality. While “it’s been interesting to watch what [Trump] is trying to do behind the scenes,” Falcone said he didn’t agree with the endorsement of Mastriano, and instead backed Barnette.

“I like that she answers questions,” he said. “She’s not trying to hide anything. She is who she is, and you can agree or disagree.”

The governor’s race, Falcone said, was a harder choice since “there’s a few people who would probably do a good job.”

He voted in-person, he said, because “there’s no way you can mess it up.”

On the Democrats’ side of the elementary school entrance, committeeperson Mary McCloskey said the party had seen “a healthy turnout” throughout the day, with many voters asking what will happen if Fetterman’s health takes a turn for the worse.

“I don’t even know,” she said. “This hasn’t happened before.”

For McCloskey, the decision to vote for Connor Lamb for senate came from her personal encounters with the candidate, where she said she felt he really listened and seemed interested in what she had to say.

Based on his work as attorney general, McCloskey said she’s convinced that Josh Shapiro “will be a fabulous governor.”

“I’m a Catholic, and how he took [the church] to task meant a lot to those of us who known predator priests, sadly,” she said. “So that meant a lot to me. I have followed his career and I really trust him. I really do.”

LaVonne Meunier, a Democrat who works in the medical field, declined to say who she voted for but said the party needs a candidate willing to listen to the other side. “I want people to work together and they should, they’re not listening to each other,” she said. “I mean, I understand people have their values, but they’re not even talking to each other.”

Thought she votes regularly, Meunier said she was particularly motivated by issues like gun control, environmentalism, and to “vote for women’s rights” in light of the leaked Supreme Court draft decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. “I remember back in the days when, you know, were in the Vietnam War and people were protesting and women didn’t have a right to abortion … I’m not saying people don’t have a right to do that. But they have a choice.”

— Oona Goodin-Smith

The polls have officially closed in this year’s primary election, bringing an end to a day for voting in hotly contested races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Voters are likely to learn the outcome of the biggest races in a matter of hours, thanks in part to many counties expecting to be finished counting the bulk of mail-in ballots tonight. And, as the Inquirer previously reported, Republicans largely avoid mail ballots, so that party’s races can be called in a similar way to past elections.

Determining winners, however, may be delayed if the margins for individual races are very close — which is most likely to happen in the Republican Senate race.

The Inquirer will be closely following the announced winners throughout the night, as reported by the Associated Press.

— Nick Vadala

Gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro showed off his rap knowledge Tuesday afternoon in response to an endorsement from Philadelphia native and rapper Meek Mill.

Mill tweeted his support for Shapiro Tuesday afternoon, saying, “I know his morals and his education we need to better the environment we come from!”

Shapiro, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, responded.

“Folks, the stakes of this election are real — and could be the difference between dreams and nightmares,” he tweeted.

Dreams and Nightmares is the title of the rapper’s 2012 album.

— Jason Laughlin

Pennsylvania elections have gotten a lot more complicated.

So we’ve had to evolve the way we report the results.

The dramatic expansion of mail voting over the last two years has brought major changes to how voters cast ballots, how votes are counted, and how election results are reported.

Still, The Inquirer’s mission remains the same: to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information as possible. That includes letting you know when a race has been called by the Associated Press; providing the latest vote counts, along with contextual information to help understand those numbers; explaining the vote count as it occurs; and covering any developments that arise.

Here are some key things to know about how we’re reporting the results tonight, including why we use the Associated Press as our source for the vote counts, how the AP calls races, why it takes weeks to get a final result, and why we’re not telling you the “percentage of precincts reporting.”

» READ MORE: How The Inquirer is reporting the results of the 2022 Pennsylvania primary

— Jonathan Lai

Fetterman’s campaign said the procedure to implant a pacemaker and a defibrillator into his chest was successful.

The campaign released a statement saying the procedure started at 3:15 p.m. and ended at 5:56 p.m.

“He is resting at the hospital and recovering well,” spokesperson Joe Calvello said.

The campaign has said doctors treated Fetterman’s stroke in time to prevent any cognitive damage, performing a procedure to remove a blood clot from his brain.

But a defibrillator is designed to treat a different problem: sudden cardiac arrest and it wasn’t immediately clear what heart problems Fetterman might have that go beyond atrial fibrillation.

His campaign has not responded to requests to talk to his doctors.

One of his opponents, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, expressed concern for Fetterman outside of a polling place in Squirrel Hill around 6 p.m. but said he didn’t have enough information to weigh in. He implored the press to get more information.

“Nobody knows what’s going on and each new disclosure seems like a surprise,” he said.

“And one of the reasons that I don’t, and no one has all the facts of the situation, is that not many have been disclosed and so that is up to you all to determine what the truth is and when it should have come out...it does seem like the kind of thing people would want to know before they vote.”

— Julia Terruso

Andrea Golden, 27, a nurse and Democrat from Media, cast her ballot for John Fetterman at her polling site inside a shuttered pet store next to an Acme on Baltimore Pike.

“I really liked his time as lieutenant governor and his non-negotiable stance on abortion is really appealing to me,” she said of Fetterman.

As a health care worker, Golden did have a mail-in ballot in case she had to work today, but when she had the day off she decided to come with her mom to vote in person because it’s a ritual “and the sticker never hurts.”

Golden purposefully chose to wear a shirt honoring Ruth Bader Ginsberg to vote Tuesday. It read: “May her memory be a revolution.”

When she votes in the general election, gun control and racial equality will be at the front of Golden’s mind, she said.

“It’s important to me that we address systemic racism, not only generally in the country, but racism has been deeply-seeded in our government for a long time. Our representatives should be reflective of our population.”

She said issues of health care and science should not be politicized.

“We’re in a divisive time,” she said. “It’d behoove us to step back from ideologies and get back to people.”

— Stephanie Farr

Jim Perry credits former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta with getting him into politics.

Now city council president of Barletta’s hometown in the hills of Pennsylvania, Perry cast his vote for Barletta Tuesday in the Republican primary for governor at the Hazleton Southside Fire Station, where Barletta also votes.

He’s hopeful Barletta can overtake the primary front-runner, State Sen. Doug Mastriano of Franklin County. But he’s not certain a late effort among establishment Republicans to rally for Barletta over Mastriano will work.

“I didn’t realize they were doing that,” Perry said. “Maybe it’s too late?”

Perry predicted the party will unify behind Mastriano if he wins.

“I think there won’t be any choice,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll oppose that because they’re looking for a Republican government.”

Michael Belusko also backed Barletta Tuesday. Speaking at the fire house during a slow trickle of after-work voters arrived, Belusko said the attempt to unify behind Barletta has increased the flood of campaign information in recent days.

“It’s actually been an annoyance with all the text messages and phone calls and mailers,” Belusko said. “If you don’t know about your candidate 24 hours before you cast your vote, there’s something wrong.”

Belusko said he didn’t know enough about Mastriano to offer an opinion.

Carol and Raymond Peters have know Barletta for three decades and their children played sports together. They too supported him and didn’t know much about Mastriano.

Asked if he thought Barletta would win, Raymond Peters shrugged and said, “I have my doubts.”

— Chris Brennan

After what volunteers described a slow couple of hours in the middle the day, they gladly welcomed a trickle of voters at St. Thomas Indian Orthodox Church in Oxford Circle.

Though Democratic voters like Andrew Julmice, 18, said they cast their ballots more out of a sense of obligation as opposed to being truly inspired by any particular candidate.

“I heard a lot about [U.S. Rep.] Conor Lamb,” said Julmice, who said he cared about receiving better access to health care and tuition help as he entered college.

Forklift operator Ivan Vazquez, 51, said it’s hard to keep up with politics when he’s working all the time but no one stood out to him in the senate race. Vazquez could not remember the Democrat he voted for but he said kitchen table issues like taxes and cost of living were top of mind for him.

“Everything is expensive, everything is running out, everything is just crazy,” he said. “I hope whoever wins does a better job against the Republican.

Democrat Janet Mansfield, 67, was enthusiastic after casting her vote for Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The court stenographer said she felt Fetterman was the most likely to bring her quality of life concerns to Washington as the former mayor of the Rust Belt town of Braddock.

“And he’s a son of Pennsylvania and kind of blue collar,” said Mansfield. “He’s very honest about the issues.”

Republican voter Abu Panackal, 48, had hopes politcal commentator Kathy Barnette would shake the senate and state Sen. Doug Mastriano could being the governor’s seat back to Republican hands.

Whispering so as to not attract attention, Panackal said he narrowed down on his choices in recent days as Barnette began to surge in the polls.

He said neither Barnette or Mastriano were perfect candidates, but he saw them as anti-establishment and as the least likely to not “walk on eggshells” for the sake of being politically correct.

Gov. Tom Wolf’s handling of pandemic business closures and 2020 racial justice protests still frustrated Panackal, who is a lifelong Republican.

“We want our governor to look at Philadelphia and say like, ‘Look, there’s not going to be violence in the streets and if there is we’re going to pull in the National Guard,” said Panackal. “We need somebody strong.”

Wolf did deploy National Guard troops to the city for weeks during protests seeking justice for George Floyd.

— Ximena Conde

At McCall Elementary’s polling place, Sheri Feinberg, 50, said she had such a long day at work that she considered not voting at all. “But then I thought, if everyone had that attitude … I feel voting is super important. If people don’t vote, they can’t complain.”

Feinberg, a teacher, voted for John Fetterman in the Democratic senate race. She likes his progressive politics and his pledge to end the filibuster. He also seems “down to earth,” she said, and she believes he has a good shot at convincing more conservative central Pennsylvanians to vote for him.

“We just desperately need a Democratic senator,” Feinberg said. “It’s a big motivation for me to vote this year.”

Shelly Hewitt, 77, voted for Conor Lamb in the same race. “I think he’s reasonable, civilized — I think he understands the seriousness of our situation in American politics and would earnestly want to accomplish something, to moderate it,” she said. “I’ve never seen such ignorant, almost evil people [on the Republican side of Congress]. I would like to think they know what they’re doing, that they’re trying to get power — I’d hate to think they believe the garbage they’re spouting.”

Still, Hewitt said, she’d be voting even if she didn’t think American politics is at a historic crossroads. “I haven’t missed an election since I was 21. I’d be out there voting for street cleaner. Every election is important.”

— Aubrey Whelan

There’s still a very good chance we’ll know tonight who won the biggest races. It might feel like a long time, but it’ll likely really end up just being a matter of hours, not days.

That’s due to a number of factors, including that many counties expect to be done counting the bulk of mail ballots tonight.

There will still be a chunk of ballots to be counted after election day, as there always are, but most mail ballots were already opened, processed, and counted in several major counties by late afternoon, including Philadelphia, Montgomery County, and Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County.

Officials in several other large counties, including Bucks and Delaware Counties in the Philadelphia suburbs, expected to have their counts done by the end of the night.

And because Republicans continue to largely avoid mail ballots, the Republican races can be called much more like in the past: Results pour in from polling places after voting ends, and within a few hours nearly all the in-person votes are reported.

There’s one major caveat: If the margins are very close, it will take time to call a race. That’s most likely to occur in the Republican Senate race.

If the results are so close in that race that it really does come down to the last votes being counted, that’s when the races could take a while to be called.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania’s biggest primaries could get called on election night. But don’t get used to it.

— Jonathan Lai

At the Springfield Hanby Masonic Lodge, Elvira Toro, 77, a Republican, said she voted for Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano because “I want better for our community here.”

She said Trump’s endorsements didn’t matter. Her daughter’s opinions are what she went by when casting her ballot.

Dottie Morris, 64, a Republican who also voted at the Springfield Hanby Masonic Lodge, said she cast her ballot for Dave McCormick and Dave White.

“I do like the fact Dave White is a local guy and a pretty strong conservative” she said “Same on McCormick, he has strong roots here and he’s a strong conservative. Protecting gun rights and the right to life are key to me.”

While Morris would normally follow Trump’s endorsement she said she didn’t this election because “I don’t believe Oz is much of a conservative.”

Said she voted in person “Because it feels patriotic and you never know who you’ll run into.”

For those Republican voters who agreed to provide their names and be interviewed, conservative values were among their chief reasons for voting for a candidate.

At a polling site at the Springfield Friends Meeting House, Anna Nolano, 69, a Republican and a native of Naples, Italy, who moved here 50 years ago, cast her ballot for governor for Dave White.

“We don’t have the democracy like you do here. I appreciate this country, it’s why I came out to vote,” she said.

The issues most important to Nolano were freedom of speech and the economy.

“We can’t eat anymore and we can’t drive anymore,” she said, referring to the rising cost of everything from food to gas.

Nolano was upset that she wasn’t asked to provide identification when voting Tuesday.

“It’s very important to have identification when you vote but they didn’t ask me for one,” she said. “I asked about it and they said ‘Oh, we know the regulars.”

— Stephanie Farr

In the voter-rich suburbs of Pittsburgh, there was little consensus among Republicans in both the Senate and the governor’s race. But most who came to the polls said they want whomever the nominees are to challenge the status quo.

Many said inflation and high gas prices were among the most important issues.

“It cost me 97 dollars to fill my tank,” George Raftis said, gesturing toward the SUV he uses to transport his four children. “We need people in government with business experience.”

So Raftis, 35, who was voting Tuesday in Collier Township outside Pittsburgh, said he voted in the Senate primary for David McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO who he says has an impressive resume and backs pro-growth economic policies that could stem inflation.

Raftis said he wasn’t swayed by the fact that McCormick was snubbed by former President Donald Trump, who backed Mehmet Oz, a celebrity surgeon.

Others said they were similarly unmoved. Stan Whiteman, a small business owner who lives in Plum, a more rural area in Allegheny County, said he’s a Trump supporter and wanted to vote for Oz, but backed McCormick at the last minute. He said he was looking for “a constitutional conservative” who was unequivocally against abortion.

“I just don’t trust any of them celebrities,” Whiteman, 77, said. “They don’t know how the rest of the world lives.”

For others, Trump’s endorsement was everything.

Carol Batis, 66, of Plum, said she voted for Oz because he was backed by the former president. And she picked Doug Mastriano for governor, a decision she made days ago when Trump endorsed the state senator.

“To tell you the truth,” she said, “I’m gonna go with anybody who is endorsed by Trump, because I believe in what he did for the country.”

Trump’s endorsement wasn’t the only one that carried weight. In the governor’s race, Greg Harris, 51, said he voted for Lou Barletta largely because he was just endorsed by Melissa Hart, the ex-congresswoman who ran for governor and dropped out days ago.

Her late backing was among a handful of endorsements Barletta racked up amid a late effort by some GOP insiders to stop Mastriano, who they worry is an extreme candidate and won’t appeal to swing voters in November.

Harris, who lives in Wexford, Allegheny County, said he voted for candidates largely based on economic issues and immigration.

“I just try to look at what is best for the country,” he said.

— Anna Orso

Things weren’t quite dead at the polling site at Marvil Funeral Home in Darby, but like many places around Delaware County, voter turnout was light, with 55 people having cast their ballot by 4 p.m.

“We keep hoping for a crowd but they not coming,” said poll worker Katie Dunbar, 54.

Carmen Bernard, 53, a Darby resident and associate pastor at the Baptist Worship Center in Northeast Philadelphia, is a registered Democrat who said she cast her ballot for John Fetterman.

“I like the fact that he’s always been a people person, he gets in the thick of things with people and that’s important,” she said.

Bernard said she doesn’t see enough bipartisanship in politics today.

“There’s a lot of divisiveness, and I hate to give any credit to the last administration, but I think he gave a platform for that divisiveness and for the lack of tolerance,” she said, referring to former President Donald Trump. “There is no longer a sense of tolerance, acceptance, or just understanding for somebody who is different from you.”

When Bernard casts her ballot in the general election in November, she said one factor will help guide her decision.

“I’m looking for the candidate who’s willing to cross political barriers and really do what’s right for the everyday common man,” she said. “And I don’t care what color, what creed, what religion, what political party that is, the one that’s willing to do what’s necessary to help the least of us, that’s who I’m willing to back.”

Brenee Brown, 50, a Democrat from Darby who also cast her vote at Marvil Funeral Home, said she voted for Malcolm Kenyatta because of his local ties, but she wasn’t wowed by any of the candidates.

“They’re all OK, I’m not going to lie,” she said. “Hopefully they will do better if they get elected.”

— Stephanie Farr

The fact that Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is having a defibrillator implanted in his chest suggests that his heart problems go beyond atrial fibrillation, physicians not involved with his care say.

Defibrillators are implanted in people deemed to be at risk of sudden cardiac arrest, designed to deliver an electric shock that reboots the heart into normal rhythm.

Cardiac arrest can result from a variety of heart conditions, but not atrial fibrillation, said Michael Savage, professor of cardiology at Thomas Jefferson University.

“Atrial fibrillation in and of itself isn’t really a risk for cardiac arrest,” he said. “A defibrillator takes us to whole other level of what is his underlying problem.”

It’s possible that Fetterman was diagnosed with a type of cardiomyopathy -- characterized by a weakened heart muscle -- which in turn could result in both a-fib and an increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest, Savage said.

Implanted in the chest, defibrillators are a miniature version of the “paddles” used in emergency rooms. People who get them can live for many years without incident.

Fetterman’s campaign didn’t respond to several request to interview Fetterman’s doctors. Fetterman voted via emergency absentee ballot Tuesday and was expected to remain in the hospital for several days.

— Tom Avril

An error by a company that prints ballots for several Pennsylvania counties caused thousands of mail-in ballots to be unreadable Tuesday as voters were deciding hotly contested primaries for governor and U.S. Senate in one of the nation’s most important battleground states.

Officials in Lancaster County, the state’s sixth most populous, said the problem involved at least 21,000 mailed ballots, only a third of which were scanning properly. The glitch will force election workers to redo ballots that can’t be read by the machine, a laborious process expected to take several days. Officials in the GOP-controlled county pledged that all the ballots will be counted eventually.

“Citizens deserve to have accurate results from elections and they deserve to have them on election night, not days later,” Josh Parsons, a Republican and vice chair of the county board of commissioners, said at a news conference. “But because of this, we’re not going to have final election results from these mail ballots for probably several days, so that is very, very frustrating to us.”

The Lancaster Board of Elections, of which Parsons is a member, renewed its criticism of a 2019 state voting law that expanded mail-in balloting but prevented counties from opening mailed ballots before Election Day to check for errors.

The board said the law, which passed the legislature with bipartisan support, also forces counties to use vendors to print ballots rather than doing them in house.

“Act 77 is untenable for us as counties to continue to work in elections and not have problems like this,” said Ray D’Agostino, chairman of the Lancaster board.

The vendor’s error left county officials with the task of having to hand-mark thousands of fresh ballots, a process that was expected to start Wednesday morning. For ballots that won’t scan, county election workers will recreate voters’ choices on blank ballots, and then scan those.

Lancaster County had to use a similar process during primaries last year because of a printing error by a different vendor.

— Associated Press

At the East Passyunk Community Recreation Center, Dominck Anastasi, 62, a retired locksmith, said he’d planned to vote for John Fetterman but had concerns about his recovery and ability to hold office after his stroke. He voted instead for his second choice, Malcolm Kenyatta: “He’s just real.”

As for Conor Lamb, who’s touted himself as the most electable Democrat in November? “I don’t know him.”

Still, Anastasi has concerns about how Democrats will fare in the general election. “I fear Shapiro might not carry the vote in November.” But he added: “I don’t trust Republicans. They’re all about the one percent. And this has always been a Democratic city.”

— Aubrey Whelan

For Republican Michael Armanious, Trump’s endorsements were a guiding light — he voted against them. Armanious, a 38-year-old physician who arrived at his Fishtown polling place in scrubs, said he didn’t vote for Doug Mastriano or Mehmet Oz because of Trump’s backing.

“I’m not gonna take any of Trump’s recommendations,” he said.

He also wasn’t a fan of what he called Mastriano’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Instead, he voted for Bill McSwain for governor and Kathy Barnette for Senate — Barnette “seems like the true conservative,” he said, while Oz “flip flops. … I don’t trust him.”

Democrats at the Fishtown Rec Center were supporting Malcolm Kenyatta for Senate. “He seemed to have the most roots in the community,” said Alix Zaremby, 32, who works at a tech startup.

Sean Cunningham, a 33-year-old teacher, voted for Kenyatta because he wanted to vote for a Philly guy, someone “who actually posits some real change.” Conor Lamb was too much of a moderate, he said, and though he did consider voting for John Fetterman, Cunningham was concerned about his health, citing his recent stroke.

— Juliana Feliciano Reyes

In Chambersburg, Doug Mastriano’s hometown, many business owners declined to comment on his ascendancy, or whether his conservative politics represent the borough. A permanent “Trump” sign hangs from the façade of one empty business there, but a few blocks away, at a falafel cafe, a sign on the wall welcomed “all genders” and “all orientations.”

Unlike many smaller cities in Pennsylvania, Chambersburg, with a population of 21,903, has seen steady growth in recent decades thanks to an influx of immigrants. There’s over a dozen Hispanic groceries, restaurants, and salons. The boroughs is 86% white while McConnellsburg, 22 miles west in Fulton County, is 97% white.

Tobi Brechbiel, owner of Your CBD Store of Chambersburg, said he travels the rural roads of Franklin and Fulton counties weekly and he’s seen “thousands” of Mastriano campaign signs.

“Most of this state is red, not blue,” he said.

— Jason Nark

At Paul Robeson High School, voters filtered in slowly Tuesday afternoon.

Ensuring that Democratic candidates who would fight gender discrimination was important for Nicoleta Maxim, 51, and one of the main reasons she cast her ballot at the school.

Maxim, an interior designer who lives in University City, has been a registered Democrat her “entire life,” she said and voted for Josh Shapiro for governor and John Fetterman for Senate. Despite Fetterman’s stroke last week, Maxim said she thought Fetterman was a better choice, since he understood the community and its needs.

“I think he has a great sense of community,” she said. “I believe he’ll be able to work with grassroots organizations from Philadelphia. These small nonprofits that need things. I think that’s great.”

Despite primary elections and non-presidential elections getting less attention, Maxim said that these elections were often more important on a local level than many people think.

Charles and Helene Miller were both members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, the union representing the city’s teacher and support staff, and said they followed the union’s recommendations for most of their vote Tuesday. Charles Miller is a teacher in West Philadelphia, while Helene Miller is a support service assistant in South Philadelphia.

They voted for Josh Shapiro for governor and John Fetterman for Senate, with the hope that Fetterman can stop a Republican Senate majority from happening in November.

“We want to make sure we get a senator elected that can actually win on the Democratic side,” said Charles Miller, 67. “I liked him from the get-go. Somebody from Philadelphia is going to have a hard time getting votes in the middle of the state.”

Despite being worried about Fetterman’s stroke last week, Helene Miller, also 67, said he had the best chance at winning. The married couple thought obtaining a U.S. Senate majority — it’s currently split 50-50 — was more important than many of the individual issues.

“I feel like we’re hanging on by our fingernails here,” Helene Miller said.

— Rodrigo Torrejón

Richard Piper, a retired hairstylist, voted in the late afternoon at a garage in Harrowgate. Piper, 62, said that protecting abortion rights and LGBTQ rights were top of mind for him this primary, as well as gentrification. He said he’s seen his neighborhood change and is worried: “Are they gonna push me out?”

He cast his vote for John Fetterman for Senate. He said he liked how Fetterman gave people second chances on the Board of Pardons.

“I just feel like he represents the real Pennsylvania,” he said.

At that same polling place, Manuel De Jesus said he was “going to go with the wave” by voting for who the Democratic Party endorsed. De Jesus, 54, a security guard at a hospital, said that’s because he didn’t know much about the candidates.

“None of them came to meet us,” he said. “It’s been like that for years.”

— Juliana Feliciano Reyes

Behind the scenes, tonight will mark an important step for Pennsylvania elections: The state will be testing its new results reporting system.

Nothing will be different publicly, with counties continuing to upload results to the Pennsylvania Department of State, which runs elections. Those results, usually with a bit of a lag, get compiled in the unofficial results displayed on electionreturns.pa.gov.

But counties will be uploading their results twice this time as part of a long-awaited transition to a new, more modern statewide voter registry and election database.

”[T]he new site will have the capability to report election results by precinct and display local contest results on the state’s website,” said Grace Griffaton, a spokesperson for the Department of State. “In addition, the modern user interface has interactive map features and icons that allows for the public to easily review election results.”

A version of the new site, reviewed by The Inquirer before public access was blocked, showed a prominent button for downloading results, along with a map of results by county and a breakdown of counted ballots.

The new site will only be used for internal testing during this primary, Griffaton said, “to measure the system’s performance, rectify any bugs or issues, and train county and [Department of State] election staff on the use of the system.”

Counties have been asked in recent weeks to practice using the system. (Some county elections officials have complained, saying the hours after polls close are the worst time to be doing extra work.)

The new page is part of an overhaul of the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors, or SURE, which was first implemented two decades ago as part of U.S. election modernization efforts following the 2000 election. But the SURE system has for years been the bane of many elections officials’ professional lives: The system will crash at the worst times, or slow to a crawl, or sometimes just not do the thing it’s meant to do.

It’s been pushed to the brink as features have been added — online voter registration, online applications for mail ballots, the massive expansion of mail ballots — and the system simply doesn’t work the way it needs to.

The transition to a new SURE system has been promised for years. Tuesday’s election night reporting will be a significant benchmark — and test — of that system.

— Jonathan Lai

At the Brookhaven Municipal Center, several Republican voters said they were voting for Dave White for governor and Dave McCormick for Senate.

Because “they’re fundamentally conservative,” said April Campbell, 69, who is against abortion and the teaching of critical race theory, an academic framework that analyzes racism as embedded in institutions. She said she also wants to see inflation decrease.

Campbell watched the Republican debates in the days before the primary, she said, to solidify her decision.

Vince Dean, 65, and Carol Dean, 60, said they, too, voted for the McCormick and White for similar reasons. The couple is “big pro-life,” Vince Dean said, and wants “limited government,” as well as restrictions on immigration.

They said they knew who Trump was endorsing but it didn’t sway their votes in the primary.

“I’m not an automatic Trumper,” Vince Dean said. But “Joe Biden makes Trump look like Abraham Lincoln.”

Meanwhile, Isaiah Dickson, 20, and his father, Roger, 50, cast Democratic ballots for two different candidates.

The elder voted for Malcolm Kenyatta, he said, because he thought he’d work to help the city of Philadelphia.

“The violence, the crime, the trash,” he said. And “obviously a big issue, being an African American, is the equal rights. It’s crazy saying that in 2022, but that’s a big issue.”

His son, meanwhile, voted for Conor Lamb because of his positions on gun violence and education, particularly in regards to the study of racism.

— Erin McCarthy

Marcia Smith remembers growing up in the days when there was still segregation. She sees the recent bombshell report that the Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade and the increase in what she sees as divisive rhetoric from Republicans as a major threat to Pennsylvania and the country.

”What do you want to do?” she said. “Take us back to the 1900s?”

Smith said she voted for Lamb and Shapiro. Though she liked Fetterman, Smith said she wanted to give Lamb a chance.

Jessica Whitley, who works in public health, said it was important for her chosen candidates to support her progressive values, that include racial equity. Whitley, 33, has been a registered Democrat since she was 18, she said.

— Rodrigo Torrejón

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who has been in the hospital recovering from a stroke since Friday, will get a pacemaker, his campaign said in a release this afternoon.

”John Fetterman is about to undergo a standard procedure to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator. It should be a short procedure that will help protect his heart and address the underlying cause of his stroke, atrial fibrillation,” the campaign statement read.

Atrial fibriliation or a-fib is caused by irregular heart rhythm. Pacemakers regulate heart rate and rhythm.

The campaign has said doctors reversed Fetterman’s stroke in time to prevent any cognitive damage and that he is expected to make a full recovery. They have not responded to requests from the media to talk to Fetterman’s doctors.

Fetterman voted via emergency absentee ballot today and is expected to remain in the hospital for several days.

His wife Gisele will attend an election night rally in Pittsburgh.

» READ MORE: John Fetterman will get a pacemaker following stroke

— Julia Terruso

At the Barry Recreation Center, Danielle Wilhelm was campaigning for the most local of Republican positions — committee leaders, including her mother, Deborah Giordano. She said she didn’t have enough information to comment on the larger races, and said her mother’s campaign is focused on safety and better paved streets.

She’s been volunteering in Republican politics in the 26th Ward for ten years, and its recent swing toward Trump hasn’t motivated her any more than usual: “I’ve been doing this for a long time, long before Trump,” she said.

Fred Musilli, the judge of elections at one of the voting divisions at Barry Rec, said turnout had been less than for a presidential election but still robust: 71 voters had come in by 2:30. He said he’d heard of short staffing in other divisions, but that the poll workers in his division had all arrived — most work the polls every year.

”We try to make it a nice experience, but it’s a long day with little pay,” he said. “You have to have a feel for civic duty — and to deal with the nonsense they have to hear from people. People will change parties, or register to vote at 9 pm on the very last day they’re eligible, and then they’re amazed they’re not on the books.”

He said poll workers had fielded a few angry comments from voters Tuesday, but “we understand the procedures — we let them vote provisionally,” which tends to smooth things over.

— Aubrey Whelan

Voting at Tomaszewski Funeral Home in Port Richmond, Kieran McSherry said the issue top on his mind was preserving a woman’s right to an abortion and “the things that been eroded over the past five years” — reversing policies endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

McSherry, a 47-year-old chef, is a registered Democrat who voted for John Fetterman in the primary because Fetterman “promotes tolerance,” but he said he’d also be fine with Malcolm Kenyatta or Conor Lamb if they end up winning the Democratic primary.

His main focus is stopping a Republican from winning Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat in November. Mehmet Oz is particularly troublesome to McSherry.

”A TV doctor who wants to be a TV senator,” McSherry said, shaking his head. “Honestly, I’d endorse any candidate running against him.”

– Kristen A. Graham

Some Democrats in far Northeast Philadelphia were alarmed Tuesday to see bright red signs around polling places promoting Republican state Rep. Martina White.

Not because of the signs themselves — which simply promote White as “PA’s Republican Voice” as she ran unopposed for re-election in the 170th Pa. House District — but because of who paid for them.

The small print required by law on campaign literature indicates the posters were financed by the House Democratic Campaign Committee, a political arm that promotes campaigns for Democrats in the Pa. House of Representatives.

Was this a case of duplicitous campaign literature? A mistake at the printing shop? Or had the Democratic group actually paid for ads promoting a Republican candidate?

Adam Bonin, a Democratic election attorney for the HDCC, confirmed the group did in fact pay for the deceptively simple ads. Bonin explained the ads as a tactic to remind Democratic voters that White is, in fact, a member of the Republican party. White’s campaign has been trying to edge out a potential Democratic challenger with her own write-in campaign.

Some backstory: Democrats failed to get a single candidate on the ballot in time for the primary election, meaning that White, a rising GOP star who now chairs the city’s party, would be all but guaranteed to secure another term in the far Northeast district.

Short of options, Democrats organized a write-in campaign to push Democrat Michelle Griffin Franks as a write-in candidate, hoping to secure the minimum 300 needed votes to appear on the ballot in November.

But White launched her own write-in campaign as a counterattack, urging registered Democrats and other non-GOP voters to cast ballots in her name, in hopes of beating Griffin as the Democratic nominee. White’s campaign PAC coached Democrats in the district with detailed instructions on how to cast a write-in ballot for her, according to mailers sent to registered Democrats that were shared with the Inquirer.

While that backstory isn’t clear on the Democrat-sponsored posters, which simply promote White as “PA’s Republican Voice,” Bonin said the message comes with an emphasis on “Republican.”

“It’s to remind people that she’s a Republican and that Democrats should not be writing her in on their ballots,” Bonin said.

White did not immediately respond to a request for comment

— Max Marin

In the 26th Ward, one of the few where more voters selected Donald Trump than Joe Biden in 2020, Malik Hassan, 34, and Ali Pearson, 43, said the neighborhood’s support for Trump has made it even more important for them to vote in the Democratic primary.

“It’s disappointing,” Hassan said. “And we live a half a block away from the precinct — there’s no excuse not to vote.”

Hassan said he voted for Malcolm Kenyatta in the Democratic Senate primary, but had also considered John Fetterman. He felt the two had similar platforms, but he looked forward to having a younger, Black man representing Pennsylvania in the Senate.

Andrew King, 28, voted for Paul Prescod for Democratic state representative after a canvasser for Prescod showed up at his door “in the pouring rain.”

He was impressed with the canvasser’s dedication — and also believes that Prescod, who’s running against longtime incumbent Anthony Hardy Williams, represents a “challenge to the status quo.”

“When people have been in power for a long time, it seems more about maintaining their position,” he said.

Prescod campaigners in the 26th said they’d hoped intense outreach efforts in the neighborhood could make a difference. Mark Miranda, a Teamster from the Northeast who was handing out fliers at a polling place at the Guerin Rec Center, said he’d been canvassing in West Philly for Prescod as well to counteract Williams’ much bigger fundraising operation.

“I’m a Teamster, and Paul’s been heavily involved in helping us with anything you ask,” he said. Williams, he said, “takes money from Republican billionaires on the Main Line. He’s basically a Democrat in name only.”

Others in the 26th were most interested in voting for Philadelphia’s ballot questions. Mike Downing, 34, an engineer for SEPTA, said he voted “yes” to expand the city’s zoning board and require qualifications for its members “because if Kenney is against it, I’m for it.”

Still, he continued, he was a bit torn on how to answer at first: “The way the city controls zoning variances is crooked as the day is long — and this was proposed by City Council, and they’re just as culpable.” But, he said, he thinks requiring qualifications for the board might improve the process.

— Aubrey Whelan

Patricia Hinkle, 59, a registered Democrat, focused on ballot questions in Tuesday’s election. She’s an ideological Republican, but changed her registration to Democrat to vote against District Attorney Larry Krasner in 2021, and didn’t change it back in time. She didn’t vote for any candidates at all.

“I didn’t want to give the Democrats any votes,” said Hinkle, a bartender from the Northeast who voted at Lawton Elementary in Wissinoming. “The Democrats divided this country on race, and now they’re going to do it on abortion, and people are going to go nuts.”

Hinkle’s friend Susan Pawlowic, who also works as a bartender, couldn’t remember who she chose for governor, but said she voted for Kathy Barnette for Senate.

“I’ve seen more about her,” said Pawlowic, 61.

Both Pawlowic and Hinkle said they were ardent Trump supporters, and though they didn’t know whom he endorsed in Pennsylvania primaries, they would go by his recommendations for the general election in November.

— Kristen A. Graham

Fetterman cast a primary election vote from Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, his campaign announced around 1:30 p.m. He used an emergency absentee ballot.

— Julie Terruso

About two dozen voters were turned away at two polling places in Harrowgate because there were not enough staffers Tuesday morning.

At John H. Webster School, three divisions did not have poll workers until about 9 a.m., meaning voters from those divisions could not vote.

“I never saw a mess like this before,” said Sandra Wells, a poll worker for 32 years.

Ryan Keller said he arrived at 6:45 a.m. to find that three divisions at the polling location were not staffed. Keller, 26, who is running for Democratic committeeperson, called the City Commissioner’s Office but couldn’t reach anyone. He and his neighbors started calling people to get them to work the polls.

Darlene Burton drove her neighbor — who had knee-replacement surgery last month — to vote at the Webster School at 7 a.m. but had to drive her back because the polls were not staffed. Burton, 51, eventually called her neighbor back when the polls were open and brought her to vote again.

“Nobody should have to go through that to vote,” Burton said.

“Some of the people never showed up,” ward leader Harry Enggasser said. “They were scheduled to be there. I don’t deal with inside staff.”

He added that everything was straightened out now.

“We have 1,703 divisions and sometimes people just don’t show up. So, we have emergency poll workers who we dispatch all over the city,” said Nick Custodio, deputy to Lisa Deeley, the chair of the city commissioners.

— Juliana Feliciano Reyes and Ryan W. Briggs

Philadelphia’s election court has issued an order to confiscate illegal posters that went up near several South Philly polling places in an apparent attack on state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler.

The fliers appeared early Tuesday near at least four polling places in the 184th Pennsylvania House district and include photographs of the two-term lawmaker alongside District Attorney Larry Krasner, linking both to the city’s gun violence epidemic.

“Fiedler and her performative ‘activists’ are all talk and no action,” the ad reads.

Just one problem: By law, election literature must include a clearly printed disclaimer indicating who paid for it — but the financing group named on the poster, “Democrats Against Egotists,” is not a registered political action committee with the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Democratic election attorney Adam Bonin petitioned the city’s election court to remove the posters, and a judge ordered sheriff’s deputies to confiscate the fliers from the polling locations.

“Campaigns and their supporters need to own what they’re saying to voters on election day,” Bonin said. “Phony PACs are dumb ploys, and more importantly they are illegal.”

Who exactly is behind the posters remains a mystery.

Fiedler, who is locked in a contentious race with local realtor Michael Giangiordano II, was previously targeted along with several other progressives by controversial campaign literature that similarly depicted her as soft-on-crime.

One ad, paid for by a group founded by charter school advocate Mark Gleason, showed a hooded man pointing a gun next to a photo of Fiedler. The ad ultimately led to the resignation of several of the PAC’s board members.

The latest attack ad does not mention Giangiordano by name, but rather urges voters to vote for an unnamed “Democrat you can trust,” and it remains unclear who is behind the unregistered fliers. Earlier, handbills that appeared to have been paid for by Giangiodano’s campaign circulated falsely asserting that he had been endorsed by the Communications Workers of America, a labor union whose local chapter actually endorsed Fiedler.

Giangiordano did not immediately return a phone call from an Inquirer reporter.

In a statement, Fiedler called the posters “illegal, last-ditch attempts by a failing campaign to take the focus of this election off the people of South Philly.”

— Max Marin and Ryan Briggs

Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick said his Republican rival Kathy Barnette needs to “answer all the questions” surrounding her candidacy, including around newly surfaced images showing her participating in the march that preceded the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But McCormick wouldn’t weigh in on whether her participation in that march is problematic. There is no evidence she entered the Capitol.

“Voters are going to have to make their judgements based on the totality of the information that they’re given,” McCormick said.

McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, was speaking to reporters on the campus of Chatham University in Pittsburgh where he and his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, voted Tuesday morning. He said he feels “incredible energy” and thinks he can win over undecided voters.

“They know this election counts so much and they’re asking who shares their conservative values, who’s going to go fight for them, [and] who can win in November,” he said, “because the stakes are so high for this election.”

— Anna Orso

At the free store in Braddock, a donation and distribution center started by Gisele Fetterman, the vibe was celebratory.

“He’s the man and today’s his day,” said a woman named Sandy picking up some groceries and wearing a tie-dyed Fetterman shirt.

Gisele Fetterman came to help volunteers after voting around the corner.

Guy Rocco, 82, a volunteer at the store, did the voice over for a Fetterman commercial.

“‘You hear me screaming ‘John Fetterman has your back, he had mine,’” he said, imitating himself, a little deeper voiced. “That’s me.” Rocco grew up in nearby Rankin and has remained in the area. He called the Fettermans “truly unique.”

“They’re one in a hundred million. Their lives are just to help humanity unconditionally, give people a second chance, level the playing friend. That’s it. So simple. Their agenda is so simple.”

Rocco said he thinks Fetterman’s “authenticity and honesty” has connected beyond Braddock. " What you see is what you get.”

Malvina Glover, 68, volunteers at the store three days a week and called Fetterman a “good guy.” “He’s somebody that I been around and I know and I don’t know everything he’s about but I know he’s for the people,” she said.

Glover, a grandmother of 24, said she worries about Oz or another Republican candidate aligned with former President Donald Trump winning.

“Trump’s trying to get himself back there and using Oz to get back in there. I don’t want him running no country that I’m living in.”

— Julia Terruso

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta was in good spirits at the polls in North Philadelphia. “As you might imagine, I voted for myself,” said Kenyatta as he exited the voting booth at the Berean Institute.

”I’m incredibly grateful and humbled, thinking about, of course, my parents today, who never in a million years — I know they’re looking down from heaven — would they imagine that their son is candidate for the U.S. Senate,” he said, addressing a group of local media alongside his husband, Matthew Miller Kenyatta.

Kenyatta, a North Philly native and first openly gay person of color to be on the ballot for U.S. Senate, said he was undeterred by his standing in public polls. “We have been discounted by so many of the pundits and the press from the very beginning,” said Kenyatta. “I think that we’re going to surprise a lot of people today and you’re going to see that there’s a real movement all across the commonwealth.”

— Astrid Rodrigues

At the polling place at the La Mott Community Center in Cheltenham Township, the mid-morning lull slipped into full sag.

Only a fraction of voters — about 30 of 730 registered — had cast ballots before 10:30 a.m.

“The turnout has been really light,” said Joe Turk, a veteran Montgomery County Board of Elections judge.

There was hope that more might appear, given that the work-from-home realities of the COVID-19 pandemic allow more people to vote during the day. They don’t need to fit voting around the start or stop of their work-day commute. And it wasn’t immediately known how many people had already voted by mail.

During a presidential election, dozens of people are usually lined up and waiting to vote before the doors open at 7 a.m. On Tuesday, it was four, the community center not bustling but quiet.

“I don’t think,” Turk said, surveying the empty lawns and walkways of the grounds, “that we’re going to get many.”

— Jeff Gammage

Dianne Johnson, a 70-year-old Democrat of Mount Airy, voted at Finley Recreation Center. “I believe that people fought so hard for us to have this right to vote, that you should be able to vote and have no restriction,” she said.

Looking forward to the general election, Johnson said abortion will be a key issue for her in November.

“I do believe it is a woman’s right to do what she chooses with her body,” Johnson said, suggesting that men who disagree get vasectomies rather than challenging a woman’s choice.

Roscoe Forman, Jr., of Mount Airy, explained that voting, for him, was crucial. “I feel it’s important to vote so we don’t go backwards to go forward,” the Democrat said.

For the general election, he said, he’ll be looking for candidates who will combat inflation. “Everything is going up constantly,” Forman, a truck driver and dock worker, said, “I just need somebody that’s gon fight for our community.”

Danielle Means, 26, a lifelong Mount Airy resident, had been a Fetterman supporter, but ultimately changed her mind following his stroke. Means, who is a caretaker for her grandmother who survived two strokes and COVID, said she voted for Conor Lamb in the Democratic Senate primary. She was following the suggestion from recommended ballot she received from local committeepeople.

“He’s young,” she said of Lamb. “He’s probably like the John Edwards of Pennsylvania right now.”

There isn’t one single issue that will sway her vote in November, she said. She’s concerned about everything.

“Ain’t nothing changed but the weather,” Means said. “We ain’t fixed the economy, the gas prices, [or] all the gun violence.”

— Cassie Owens

Berks County’s rollout of electronic poll books hit a snag Tuesday, sending elections officials scrambling to scrap their plans and instead deliver the traditional paper poll books that they had printed just in case.

It’s unclear what the issue was, and a county spokesperson said it didn’t affect every device — but was widespread enough to merit switching to the paper backups. A brief statement from the county didn’t outline the cause of the problem, saying “the details behind the issue will be reviewed after Election Day and a full and detailed explanation will be provided at that time.”

The switch was the latest example of the complexities and challenges of the voting equipment overhauls Pennsylvania counties have undertaken in recent years.

While paper poll books have been used for decades to check in voters when they arrive at polling places — and provide a record of who has voted — many places have moved to electronic versions. E-poll books, as they’re often called, can contain much more information than paper books, such as helping identify the correct polling place for a voter who is in the wrong location. They can also reduce human error from, say, poll workers not spelling a voter’s name correctly when trying to search the paper poll books.

Berks County’s system, the ES&S ExpressPoll, allows poll workers to search for voters using their names or dates of birth or, the county touted, a barcode scanner that can quickly pull up information using a voter’s driver’s license.

But the convenience of electronic poll books also comes with added complexity. When Philadelphia bought new voting machines in 2019, it also moved to use an iPad-based system — before discovering the system would not work correctly with the rest of the city’s equipment.

Philly elections officials ended up abandoning that plan and only now, three years later, are they preparing to try again.

Berks County had tested the electronic poll books at five sites last fall, according to the Reading Eagle, before deciding to roll them out to every polling place this election. The county had a total of more than 400 e-poll books, said county spokesperson Stephanie Weaver.

The county had also prepared the normal paper poll books as a backup, Weaver said. When county officials learned of the issue with the e-poll books, they rushed to distribute those backups.

”Maybe our foresight was better than we thought,” Weaver said.

— Jonathan Lai

John and Ruth Crawford both showed up at Westbrook Park Elementary School in Clifton Heights on Tuesday morning to vote against Trump politics. But they did so on different ballots.

Ruth Crawford, 72, said she changed her party registration from Republican to Democrat in the days after the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Her husband, 76, considered doing so, too, he said, but ultimately decided to remain a Republican to vote against candidates endorsed by Trump in primary elections.

”I’m voting against Oz,” said the retired carpenter. Instead, he voted for Dave White for governor and newcomer Kathy Barnette for Senate.

”I wasn’t passionate about any of them,” he added. “In the fall, I’m voting for Fetterman.”

Ruth Crawford, who said abortion rights are a major issue for her, voted for Fetterman on her Democratic ballot.

Meanwhile, Republican Rob DiComillo, 51, said he voted for Oz in the hopes that the country will “see a big change” in terms of the economy and immigration policy.

Trump’s endorsement of Oz didn’t make an impact, he said.

For governor, DiComollo voted for White.

”I liked the blue collar-ness of him,” he said.

— Erin McCarthy

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he passed over former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta for endorsement in the Republican primary for governor in Pennsylvania because he “ran a very bad race” for the U.S. Senate in 2018.

Trump, calling in to conservative talk show host Chris Stigall’s program on AM-990 The Answer, said he likes Barletta but endorsed State Sen. Doug Mastriano because he has been “very loyal to election integrity.” Trump, in the interview, repeated his lies about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” in Pennsylvania, which Mastriano has pushed as well.

Trump backed Barletta in the 2018 race that he lost by 13 points to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.

”He was a little missing in action,” Trump said. “He did not run a good race. And he got beaten pretty badly.”

Trump also suggested that state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the only Democrat running for governor, is spreading “misinformation or disinformation” in television ads that link Mastriano to the former president.

Those are widely seen as Shapiro trying to boost Mastriano in the primary as the state’s Republican establishment worries that he will not be able to defeat Shapiro in November.

» READ MORE: Josh Shapiro just made it clear which Republican he wants to run against in the Pa. governor’s race

”The last person he wants to run against is Mastriano because Mastriano has a big base,” Trump said.

Shapiro, speaking on MSNBC Monday evening, denied trying to boost Mastriano and said he has been “poised to be the Republican nominee for weeks.”

In the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Trump again pushed Mehmet Oz having “a certain sharpness” while criticizing David McCormick for financial ties to China and Kathy Barnette for controversial statements that have resurfaced as she surged in the polls.

Trump also said Oz would be helpful in Pennsylvania if he decides to run again for president in 2024 but pledged to support the candidate who wins the nomination.

— Chris Brennan

The Pennsylvania Republican primary for U.S. Senate remained up for grabs heading into Election Day, with a new survey showing Mehmet Oz and Kathy Barnette neck and neck.

The Trafalgar Group survey of about 1,200 likely Republican primary voters also showed State Sen. Doug Mastriano with a solid lead in the GOP primary for governor.

In the Senate race, Oz, the celebrity doctor, led the pack with 28.5% of the vote, followed by Barnette, a conservative commentator, with 26.8% — a gap that fell within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

McCormick, a former hedge fund manager, had 21.5% of the vote. No other candidate registered in double digits.

In the governor’s race, Mastriano had the support of 37.2% of likely GOP primary voters — about 12 points ahead of his nearest competitor, former U.S. Rep Lou Barletta (24.9%). Former U.S. attorney Bill McSwain followed with 17.4% and former Delaware County Councilman Dave White had 9.7%.

— Andrew Seidman

At Sayre High School in West Philadelphia on Tuesday morning, volunteers for various campaigns made their final cases to arriving voters.

Some were receptive, stopping to hear them out. Others marched past volunteers, waving them off.

“My mind is made up!” one woman said repeatedly.

For Kevin Marshall, 63, voting in person felt more secure than mailing in his ballot.

“I’d rather do it in person. Sometimes that mail stuff don’t work,” he said

Marshall, an Army veteran, voted for incumbent State Senator Anthony Williams, his cousin.

A registered Democrat for years, Marshall also voted for Conor Lamb and Josh Shapiro.

As a veteran, healthcare was important to Marshall when casting his vote and his chosen candidates keeping their campaign promises.

I want them to “do what they promise and say they’re going to do,” said Marshall.

For Beatrice Martin, 68, crime and safety were top of mind. Martin lives in a retirement home that has been robbed several times, she said, and she’s often worried about the gun violence crisis in the city.

“I live in a senior building and all the seniors don’t even come out. They don’t come out after dark,” she said.

Martin, who voted for Lamb and Shapiro, said the city needed more police officers and needed to ensure that the officers weren’t going to act in a “discriminatory” way.

— Rodrigo Torrejón

Voters who expected to be able to vote in person but suddenly can’t still have an option: an emergency absentee ballot.

While the normal deadline for requesting a mail ballot was a week ago, state law allows for emergency requests when voters are unexpectedly unable to go to the polls. That includes because of illness — COVID-19 counts — or unforeseen travel, such as a last-minute work trip.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the front-runner in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, for example, is likely to vote via emergency absentee ballot because he remains hospitalized as he recovers from a stroke, his wife, Gisele, said Tuesday morning. Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is isolating at home after testing positive for COVID-19, will also vote by emergency absentee ballot as he runs uncontested in the Democratic primary for governor, his campaign said.

Contact your county elections office for help requesting and voting on the emergency ballot.

The paper application is available online and can be submitted up until polls close at 8 p.m. The ballot itself is also due by 8 p.m.

If you’re unable to get or return the ballot, you can authorize someone else to both pick up and return it for you. If you can’t find someone, ask county elections officials for help. They can help designate someone to deliver the ballot, the Pennsylvania Department of State said, or can ask the county court to send a deputy sheriff or constable to help.

— Jonathan Lai

R.J. Lucas, 78, cast his votes for Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz at Charles H. Russell School in Broomall. His reasoning was straight forward.

“I’m a Trump guy,” he said, noting that he’s in favor of “everything he did and nothing that this guy [President Joe Biden] is doing.”

Lucas said the economy is a major issue for him, but he based his vote on Tuesday almost solely on the former president’s endorsements.

“I really don’t get into politics,” Lucas added.

Meanwhile, several Democratic voters said they were voting against Trumpian ideals and were hopeful that the general election would mark a turn away from the former president’s brash brand of politics.

Among them were Jim and Cindy Meyer who cast votes for presumptive nominee Josh Shapiro and Conor Lamb, who has been trailing the more progressive John Fetterman and Malcolm Kenyatta in the polls.

Jim Meyer, 77, a retried engineer, said he was drawn to Lamb’s centrism and thought he had a better chance of beating a Republican in the general election.

“We need to have another Democrat [win], because I don’t think the Republicans are representing the state,” he said.

Cindy Meyer, 76, said she thought Fetterman was too “full of himself.”

What issues would be top of mind for the couple in the general election?

“Sanity,” said Jim Meyer.

Cindy Meyer added: “Not Trump.”

— Erin McCarthy

The polls hadn’t been open for 30 minutes at the Abington Public Library voting station, but Paul Morse Jr. could already tell that the day’s turnout would be low.

The GOP committeeman saw the same familiar faces coming out to vote.

And not many of them.

Over the course of an hour, starting at 7 a.m., as rays of warming sun peaked across the library roof, only 12 people showed up to cast ballots.

“It’s not going to be a heavy turnout,” said Morse, 78, a retired businessman who previously served on the township school board.

For big elections, as when Donald Trump or Barack Obama was on the ballot, he said, the line of people waiting to vote would stretch across the parking lot. The only thing there on Tuesday was asphalt. And a few cars.

Voters popped in and popped out, on their way to work or to get on with their day.

“I always vote, no matter what,” said Natalie Black, 39, a physical therapist who generally votes Democratic.

She’s become part of a majority in an Abington that over 30 years has shifted from solidly Republican to decidedly Democratic, the latter now holding a voter-registration edge of about 2-1.

On Tuesday some voters at the library said they were there mostly because of habit, rather than being driven by particular causes or candidates, that they have and will continue to vote in every election.

“You get the super-voters,” said Democratic poll worker Joe Gordon, 43, a local immigration attorney, “people who are here for every election like clockwork.”

But he wasn’t expecting a rush. “It’s a primary,” he said, and many people wait to vote in the general election.

Most voters were in and out in two minutes, hustling past the row of short U.S. flags and candidate signs that lined the library walk.

“Let’s hope,” one man called out to no one in particular after he voted, “we did some good out here today.”

— Jeff Gammage

Early-morning voters trickled into the Fitzpatrick Recreation Center on Academy Road in the Northeast’s 66th ward, one of three city wards that Donald Trump won in the 2020 presidential election.

David Szczepkowski, a Republican, voted for Bill McSwain for governor. Szczepkowski is a city police officer, and candidates’ stances on crime the issue of chief importance to him.

“McSwain is very supportive of the police,” said Szczepkowski, 43. “He’s escalated things from the county level with the DA to the federal level. No sweetheart deals for these criminals.”

For Senate, Szczepkowski voted for Mehmet Oz; with gas prices approaching $5 a gallon, he was looking for a candidate who would “switch over to the Keystone Pipeline.”

Steven Hartley, who works in IT, supported Doug Mastriano in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Hartley, 43, was thinking about “economic turnaround, inflation, the price of gas, and my children’s education” as he voted; Mastriano best matched his values on all.

Looking to the November general election, Hartley said he’s also focused on another issue.

“I’d like to see more unity generally,” he said.

— Kristen A. Graham

Speaking to reporters from her polling place in Braddock, Gisele Fetterman said her husband Lt. Gov. John Fetterman was recovering well and “impatient,” but in good spirits.

She said both are confident in Democratic voters nominating him in today’s primary.

“I think they know there’s no one who would work harder for Pennsylvania than my husband.”

She was the seventh voter to cast a ballot at New Hope Baptist Church in Braddock on the sunny 70-degree morning.

She said the lieutenant governor will vote, likely via an emergency absentee ballot from his Lancaster hospital, according to the campaign.

Asked if the family would release a note from his doctor or allow a doctor to talk to the press, Gisele said she she wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know what the protocol is like, but if that’s something that’s normally done, I’m sure that that will happen down the road.”

The campaign announced Sunday that Fetterman had a stroke on Friday. The campaign has said Fetterman will make a full recovery and that he suffered no cognitive damage but has not made doctors available to the press.

He’ll remain in the hospital through primary day, while Gisele attends a rally tonight in Pittsburgh.

She said the experience has her eager to talk about strokes and the signs to watch for, along with the lack of access to emergency medical care for many in the state.

“We were lucky that we were in a location…we were very close to a stroke center, one of the best in the state. We should be talking about parts of the state that are rural areas, that would not have had the same access and the same intervention that he would have had.”

As for the politics of the day, she called the seat one “that could decide the future of our country.”

“It’s a very important seat. It’s very serious and we will continue to work very hard.”

In terms of how soon he’d return to the trail, she said whatever doctors recommend to him she planned to “add a week.”

“I want him off his phone and resting.”

— Julia Terruso

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Conor Lamb said Tuesday morning that the Democratic primary election results will be something of a referendum on “which way the party wants to move.”

Speaking to reporters from his home polling place in Mt. Lebanon, Lamb — a congressman who represents a district that leans Republican — said the Democratic party “is going to have to think really hard about how we’re going to succeed in what is a very, very challenging political environment.”

“Lieutenant Governor Fetterman and I have offered two very different paths based on two different sets of experience and two different personalities,” he said, adding that the party should be “doubling down” on picking candidates who can attract swing voters and independents.

Lamb has trailed Fetterman, an anti-establishment type who supported Bernie Sanders, throughout the campaign. The late wildcard came when Fetterman suffered a stroke Friday, and he’s expected to be hospitalized through election day.

The congressman said he wouldn’t forecast how Fetterman’s hospitalization could impact the race, saying: “I’ve gotten very little information about it, much like the rest of the general public.”

Lamb, who came to the polling place in Pittsburgh with his wife, Hayley, and 17-month-old son Matt, left without going inside. He’d already voted by mail.

— Anna Orso

If you requested a mail ballot but now want to vote in person, you still can. Just be prepared to go through a few extra steps.

If you have your ballot materials, bring them with you to the polling place. Specifically, you’ll need the declaration envelope — the one you sign and date and use to mail the ballot back — along with the mail ballot itself, but it’s easiest to just bring the whole packet.

At the polling place, let the poll workers know you want to surrender your ballot and vote in person. When they look you up in the poll book, you should be marked as having requested a mail ballot, which is how they prevent people from double-voting.

Hand over your ballot materials, which will get placed into a large envelope. Then you’ll sign a form saying you’re voting in person instead and only casting one vote.

From that point forward, you’ll vote like everyone else at the polling place, casting a regular in-person vote on the machines.

If you don’t have your ballot, whether because it never arrived or something happened to it, you can still vote using a provisional ballot. Explain the situation to the poll workers when you arrive, and you’ll be given a paper ballot to fill out, sign a few things, and be good to go. Provision ballots are set aside and counted last, after making sure you didn’t vote some other way.

— Jonathan Lai

The Pennsylvania primary will be the center of attention on cable news today.

On CNN, anchor Wolf Blitzer will be in Philadelphia for the networks’ election night coverage, which kicks off at 7 p.m. Jake Tapper, who grew up in Queen Village and Merion, will anchor coverage from Washington, D.C., while Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett will be in the network’s New York studios.

Over on MSNBC, University of Pennsylvania graduate (and one-time KYW reporter) Andrea Mitchell will report live from Philadelphia Tuesday, joined by José Díaz-Balart and Katy Tur. Rachel Maddow won’t be part of the network’s live coverage tonight, as she continues to only host her show on Monday nights. Instead, All In host Chris Hayes will handle the networks coverage from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Fox News will stick with its normal primetime lineup of opinion hosts, but the network said they will turn to anchor Bill Hemmer for the latest updates and analysis.

Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd will anchor an election night special on the NBC News Now streaming service at 8 p.m. alongside Philadelphia-native Kristen Welker.

In addition to Pennsylvania, there are four other states holding primaries on Tuesday: Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Oregon.

— Rob Tornoe

The polls are now open to vote in today’s Pennsylvania primary election. Polling places will remain open today until 8 p.m., and as long as you’re in line before 8 p.m., you will be able to cast your ballot.

If you’re planning to vote in person today, you can find your polling place on the Department of State’s website by entering your county, city, and street. If you live in Philly, enter your address in the local lookup tool.

Mail ballots must be received by county elections officials by 8 p.m. on election day — postmarks don’t count. If you haven’t yet mailed your ballot back, your best option now is to return your ballot in person

Philadelphia has 16 mail ballot drop boxes where voters can return a ballot today:

— Rob Tornoe

It isn’t on the ballot, but if it were, after another dismal run of days, the atmosphere might win in a landslide on primary day.

From Erie to State College to Marcus Hook, clouds will be in a clear minority throughout the 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. polling hours, with virtually no chance of a drop of rain throughout the Commonwealth as a dry air mass routs the humidity.

Historically, on primary day, neither rain, nor snow, nor hail can keep most voters from exercising their right NOT to go to the polls.

The origins of the concept that weather matters at all in voting is unknown. One hypothesis holds that it has its roots in Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960, White suggested that fine weather across the country juiced up the turnout in an election that Democratic Sen. John F. Kennedy barely won over Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

Another hypothesis holds that the late Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was a bigger factor than the weather in that 1960 election.

In any event, expect “beautiful weather” Tuesday, says Carl Erickson, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. So, if you end up waiting in line outside Tuesday, you might consider yourself fortunate.

— Anthony R. Wood

Pennsylvania voters go to the polls Tuesday after a dramatic and unpredictable primary delivered one more day of twists and questions, with one front-runner hospitalized, a surging candidate facing new questions, and a cliff-hanger finish looming in the Republican Senate race.

Much of Monday — like the rest of the final week of the campaign — centered on the surprising rise of GOP Senate candidate Kathy Barnette, who faced new questions about participating in the march that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, her Islamophobic tweets, and a suggestion that if she loses, she won’t support either of her top Republican rivals, Mehmet Oz and David McCormick.

Most polls have shown Oz, the celebrity surgeon known as “Dr. Oz,” clinging to a relatively narrow lead in the GOP Senate primary, with all three in a close grouping at the top of a race that will decide the party’s nominee in one of the country’s most critical contests. Jeff Bartos and Carla Sands trailed the top three by a distance. Former President Donald Trump leaned into his support for Oz on Monday, recording a robocall for him and calling into Oz’s closing campaign event.

In the Democratic Senate primary, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the front-runner, remained hospitalized after a stroke Friday and planned to skip his election night party Tuesday as he recovers. An email to supporters Monday said he was “on his way to full recovery.” His wife, Gisele Baretto Feterman, was expected to headline the Tuesday night event instead.

His main rivals are U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. Lamb, who will need to defy public polling to rally and defeat Fetterman, kept a relatively low public profile Monday.

In the Republican primary for governor, public polling has consistently shown State Sen. Doug Mastriano with a significant lead over former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, who in the final days of the race consolidated much of the GOP establishment support, including from a major political group that spent millions backing another candidate, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain. But with Mastriano seemingly leading by a significant margin, Trump endorsed him Saturday.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for governor.

The primaries for both Senate and governor have drawn national attention for their importance to control of the Senate, the potential for significant changes in state laws if the GOP wins the governor’s mansion, and signals about the strengths and directions of both parties in a critical swing state.

» READ MORE: Tuesday’s Pa. primary will wrap up a chaotic campaign and chart both parties’ paths forward

— Jonathan Tamari, Juliana Feliciano Reyes, and Sean Collins Walsh

— Tom Gralish

We’re about to get answers.

After all the politicking, strategizing, and speculating, we’ll finally find out late Tuesday which candidates, campaigns, and messages succeeded — and which fell short.

But it won’t be just about the winners and losers. The results will tell us a lot about where the Democratic and Republican Parties are heading after the upheaval of the Trump presidency.

That’s especially true in Pennsylvania, because neither the Senate nor gubernatorial races have incumbents — leaving voters in both parties to choose new faces.

So what could we glean from the results? Here are five things to watch in the primary election.

» READ MORE: 5 things to watch in the Pennsylvania primary election

— Jonathan Tamari and Julia Terruso

It’s election time again in Pennsylvania.

The 2022 Pennsylvania primary election will be held May 17, and in the weeks before as voters cast ballots by mail. Parties are nominating candidates for U.S. Senate, governor, U.S. House, and state legislative seats.

The Senate race is one of the most crucial in the country. Especially in this election, because of new congressional and state legislative maps that will shape power and politics in your community for the next decade. This race will help decide which party controls the chamber after the November midterm elections — and the fate of President Joe Biden’s agenda in the second half of his term. Pennsylvanians will also elect a new governor, who will have a huge impact on the direction the state takes on economic issues, as well abortion, voting laws, and more.

Here’s what to know about the elections and how to make your voice heard, whether you’re planning to vote in person or by mail.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania primary voter's guide

— Michelle Myers, Andrew Seidman, and Jonathan Tamari

Tuesday is Pennsylvania’s primary election, with voters casting ballots for party nominees in races for governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and the state legislature. Philadelphia voters will also weigh in on four ballot questions.

We’ll have updates from the polls throughout the Philadelphia region during the day, and reporters with candidates across the commonwealth as results come in during the evening. Follow along here for live updates throughout, and we’ll bring you the latest results in the evening.

— Staff reports