Overwhelmed western Pa. polls reportedly seek volunteers' help

Morning Call ^ | 11/4/2008 | Staff

[Red in Blue PA]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A voting rights group says officials at overwhelmed Pennsylvania polling places, primarily in Pittsburgh, are asking volunteers to step in as temporary poll workers.

The Election Protection Coalition did not specify the number of precincts that they say are understaffed.

Allegheny County's election manager, Mark Wolocik, said Tuesday it is not unusual for an election board member to enlist extra help with clerical duties at a busy polling place.

[Genoa]

Bitter clingers covered in coal dust descend on polls in WPA.

[Recovering_Democrat]

PENNSYLVANIA FREEPERS! HELP DELIVER PA FOR MCCAIN/PALIN!!

[Pete]

Isn’t Pittsburgh Obama country (along with Philly). Not necessarily good news?

[impeachedrapist]

It won’t help today, but Jack Murtha may well have a lot of free time to help out at the polls during future western PA elections.

[Owen]

Yes, don’t post reports like this without the critical information of how the area leans. This is easy to find in CNN’s 2004 election data.

[kalee]

The area is usually heavily Dem, but western PA is also coal country. I am hopeful that Murtha’s disdain for the voters there and Biden’s and Obama’s promise to bankrupt their employers have turned them out to vote McCain.

[HamiltonJay]

Allegheny County went to Kerry by 90,000 votes, Pittsburgh proper has less than 350,000 residence.

Pittsburgh is a broad term here, it can mean the actual city, or it could mean just the general area.

I guarantee you, Fauxbama will not win Allegheny county by the margins that Kerry did.

[edcoil]

I heard on the radio that state wide we seemed have a 2% increase in votes over 2004 so far this morning.

[Parley Baer]

Murtha’s district does not included Pittsburgh. It does include Johnstown and it looks like the proverbial salamander. Hope he goes down to defeat.

[penowa]

"The area is usually heavily Dem, but western PA is also coal country."

W PA is the home of the Reagan Democrats and from what I saw when I went to vote in Democrat Beaver Co., next door to Allegheny, they are out in force.

I have lived in the same place in rural Beaver Co., voting at the same Volunteer Fire Dep't for about 20 yrs., and I have NEVER EVER seen anything like the number of people who showed up today to vote. Standing in line for over an hour (the line was longer from when the polls opened until 9 am,) I struck up a conversation with some women who are Hillary Democrats. All of them intended to vote a straight Republican ticket because they are frightened of Obama and plan to use any method available to combat the possibility of his election.

My husband just returned from voting mid-afternoon and the line was close to 2 hrs., longer than it was mid-morning. They aren't there to vote for the Chosen One either!

[GCC Catholic]

Murtha’s district does not included Pittsburgh. It does include Johnstown and it looks like the proverbial salamander. Hope he goes down to defeat.

If William Russell win the district, and pull McCain through on his coattails, it should really help McCain in PA.

Looking at the map, Greene Co. (the one in all green), Jefferson and Fayette Cos. (the two that border Greene Co.), and Cambria Co. (the easternmost one) all went to Kerry in 2004.

It's my home district. I think the racist comments, and the general support of gun-grabbing, wealth-distributing 0 might have hurt him in all but the poorest rural areas here.

(image shamelessly hotlinked from Murtha's website. Ha!)