The Times Herald reports, Voter ID Gets “Soft Rollout” Amid Light Turnout: On a primary election day when voter turnout was judged to be lighter-than-light on Tuesday, the number of voters coming to the polls without voter identification was miniscule. At three Norristown precincts picked at random by The Times Herald, 10 people did not have the proper voter identification among 272 people casting ballots, according to the poll workers. In the Norristown Precinct 3-3, six voters did not have voter identification among the 98 voters between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m., said an election inspector working at Eisenhower Middle School. There were reports that not all poll workers asking voters for ID: Election workers are supposed to ask for your photo identification for a dry run for when it’s mandatory in the November general election. At a polling place in Taylor when Newswatch 16 was there, some were asked, some were not. . . At the polling place inside the Keyser Valley Community Center in Scranton, they weren’t asking for ID, but still a lot of voters were showing up with drivers licenses in hand. None of the voters who were asked saw the new law as a big deal. “We advise you to decline to present a photo ID for this election if requested,” reads a part of the letter, which also informs voters about candidates endorsed by the local Democratic committee. Poll workers in Chester worry that the state’s new voter ID bill could suppress turnout. You know what else suppresses turnout? Gunshots. I just returned from a polling place on Johnson Street in Sun Village, a watch-your-back neighborhood in Chester’s East Side, where more than a dozen shots rang out after the polls opened this morning. “We have a lot of people who walk here to vote. We want to protect them but how can we?” asked Ashaki-Imani Prince, a judge of elections. “They’ll be afraid they might be shot.” More reports of successful Voter ID rollouts across PA: PA Election Chief: Voter ID Rollout Going Well Voter ID Test Run Goes Smoothly in Northampton County
“Most people have been coming in with the driver’s license in their hands. Most people are aware of the law,” said Andrew Ely, a machine operator at Norristown Precinct 3-1 at Eisenhower Middle School. “It is funny seeing the different reactions. It ranges from ‘it’s funny they’re doing this’ to ‘they should have done this years ago.’”
A few “irregularities”:
Also one reported attempt at Democrat-organized “protest”:
Voters in a Philadelphia ward were instructed by some Democratic committee members to refuse to show their identification before voting in Tuesday’s primary, according to a nonprofit. PA Independent obtained a copy of the letter from The Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit that works to ensure open and fair elections in Philadelphia. The group called the letter “irresponsible and troubling.”
And one voter reported “Shots Fired – A Lot of Them – Near Chester Polling Place”:
Only 33 people had voted at the garage as of 1:06 p.m. All of them had their ID, by the way.