Voter turnout predicted to be heavy
John Martin of Whitehall organizes absentee ballots Friday while preparing to send them to Washington County polling stations.
Don Snee of Union Township, left, and Louis McLaughlin of Canonsburg load a cart of voting machines from a storage building on South Main Street in Washington into a truck Friday in preparation for their distribution for Election Day.
If you haven’t heard, today is the 2012 presidential election, and according to Washington County Elections Director Larry Spahr, voter turnout is going to be heavier than usual.
“It’s a presidential election,” said Spahr, who is predicting voter turnout to be between 65 and 70 percent.
The highly contested race between incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney is drawing voters to the polls in Pennsylvania, where the race has narrowed significantly.
Susquehanna Polling released the results Sunday of a presidential poll in Pennsylvania that has the presidential race as a dead heat, with both Obama and Romney at 47 percent statewide. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson was at 1 percent in Pennsylvania, even though he had very little support in the mid-September poll.
Voters who remain undecided were at 4 percent statewide.
The Morning Call in Allentown also conducted a presidential poll in the state. Its results showed Obama at 49 percent, compared to 46 percent for Romney, with third-party candidates at 2 percent and undecided voters at 3 percent statewide.
Since the April primary, Washington County has picked up 226 more Republican registered voters, but Democrats still hold an edge in total number of registered voters.
In the four years since the last presidential election year, Democrats, whose ranks numbered 88,379 in 2008, have shrunk to 77,959. During the same time period, Republicans, who had 46,638 registered members in 2008, now count 49,254 members.
Official Pennsylvania voter statistics showed a total of 152,517 Washington Countians registered.
In addition to the presidential race, area voters also are being faced with some highly contested congressional and state legislative races, such as that of incumbent Republican Congressman Tim Murphy and Democrat Larry Maggi for the 18th District seat.
Spahr spent Monday scurrying from polling place to polling place to assure that all goes smoothly, especially with the anticipated high turnout. Election officials’ jobs, however, will be made somewhat easier due to the fact that voters will not be required to present photo ID to cast their ballots.
Elections officials will still ask for an ID, but it will not be necessary, at least for this election.
Spahr previously said, however, that he doesn’t think the voter ID requirement is going to a problem, even when it becomes mandatory.
“I talked to some of the judges (of elections) after the primary, and most everybody was compliant,” he said. “The judges said a few people grumbled and rumbled, but they said most people were ready to show ID.”
Today’s weather forecast may also affect voter turnout.
There is to be sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures on Election Day, conditions that tend to mean more voters will venture out to their respective polling places than if it was overcast and raining.