Tonight I went to one of the training sessions for Beaver County election officials, of which I am one. Next Tuesday is going to be a big day! As you may have heard, Pennsylvania has found itself to be in the position to make a difference for a change, despite the late date of our primary.
Our Election Bureau director told us that our county has added over 2,000 new registered voters for this election (out of a total population of 175,000 – not sure what the total county registered voter count is, but I know our precinct has about 1,000). I have to assume most of those were Democrat. And I also think there were a lot of voters who switched to Democrat for this primary (2 in our household alone!). Also, there are about 2,000 absentee ballots cast, which is way more than usual; they're expecting about double the turnout at the polls as we've been used to seeing lately. They re-emphasized to us that we're not to allow any media into the polling places, nor allow cell cameras, etc.
This will be my first time working a presidential election year, so I'm excited – I'll have to get lots of sleep Monday night, since Tuesday will be a grueling 16-hour day of constant activity. Should be fun, though!
Glad to hear you'll be on the front lines Tuesday! Need a win for our man!