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Early evening polling reports, from Philly to Westmont (Updated)

There’s still time before the polls close, but the early consensus from political operatives across the state is that turnout was pretty low, with the 12th Congressional District being a notable exception, considering the special election there.

We’ll also hearing that turnout was higher in western Pennsylvania than in the Philadelphia region, where there was more rain.

The Committee of Seventy, the prominent government watchdog group that monitors the polls in Philly, has said turnout was light in the city. In a late afternoon report, the group said that sample ballots were being handed out that erroneously listed Dan Onorato as the city Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, not Anthony Williams. The extent of the problem wasn’t clear, but sample ballots were confiscated.

The Committee of Seventy also said it was looking into allegations of improper electioneering that were made by Joe Sestak’s Senate campaign (that is, his campaign is the bringer of allegations, not the target), but was not more specific.

In the Philadelphia suburbs, we received dueling reports about just how high or low turnout has been.

There was a report of 175 people whose votes were mistakenly allowed to vote twice in Fayette County.

And taking the cake for the most explosive charge of the day, albeit one that still requires substantiation, the state Republican Party accused 12th District Democratic candidate Mark Critz of illegal campaigning inside polling places. In an early evening statement, the party said it had received reports of Critz “showing up and campaigning inside a number of polling locations all over Cambria County.” It provided this grainy photo that state party spokesman Michael Barley said is most certainly Critz, inside the Westmont 6 polling station. But a lot more context is needed on this. We reached out to the Critz campaign but didn’t immediately hear back.

“Get out of the polls Mark!” Barley said in a statement. “Your presence breaks the law, intimidates voters and election workers and could influence the outcome of this election.”

The Pennsylvania Department of State had yet to publish any preliminary voting data online.

UPDATE: A Critz camapign spokeswoman denies the GOP allegations. “Mark did no electioneering within polling locations,” she says. “These are nothing more than desperate attacks which we’ve seen from Tim Burns throughout this campaign.”

UPDATE: The Committee of Seventy is hearing some reports that turnout is on the rise in Philadelphia in the afternoon and evening.

Reporting was contributed by pa2010.com correspondents and sources in Allegheny, Cambria, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, with scattered reports from elsewhere throughout the state.

May 18, 2010 at 5:40 pm

--pa2010.com Staff

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