With most polls closed in Pennsylvania’s pivotal midterm elections, the vote-counting begins in earnest for some of the most closely watched races in the country.
Thousands of workers in all 67 counties have been tallying mail-in ballots throughout the day and will now begin adding in-person votes as the country — indeed the world — watches as results begin to trickle in. Polling places throughout the state and region saw surges of voters casting ballots today that will decide the state’s next governor, U.S. Senator and federal representatives of Pittsburgh and its suburbs — some of the hardest-fought and most expensive races of their kind in the country.
National parties and outside groups poured tens of millions of dollars into the Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz, as well as the U.S. House races between Republicans Jeremy Shaffer and Mike Doyle and their Democratic opponents Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro vastly outspent his GOP rival, Doug Mastriano, but Mr. Mastriano has told supporters he’s counting on a surge of under-the-radar voters to carry him to victory.
Here’s the latest.
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10:10 p.m.
The Associated Press called a few Western Pennsylvania state House races, including for late Rep. Tony DeLuca, who died last month. His victory triggers a special election in the state’s 32nd House district.
For more state House results, click here.
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10 p.m.
In one of the early race calls in Western Pennsylvania, Democratic incumbent Lindsey Williams defeated Republican Lindsey Mizgorski in the race for Pennsylvania’s 38th senatorial district. Click here to read more.
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8:15 p.m.
Polls closed at 10 p.m. in Luzerne County, a key swing county of the northeast part of the state that includes Wilkes Barre. A judge ordered the extension after ballot shortages interrupted voting at polling places across the county. The order doesn’t apply to mail ballots or drop boxes, according to a notice from the county’s Court of Common Pleas.
Allegheny County, by contrast, had nearly all of its mail-in ballots tabulated by 8:03 p.m., three minutes after the polls closed.
According to the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth’s daily mail ballot report, Allegheny County had received 156,227 mail-in ballots as of 9 a.m. Tuesday – 120,307 from registered Democrats, 22,806 from registered Republicans and 13,114 from other voters.
Workers are currently processing another 1,000 ballots that were delivered midafternoon from the Downtown post office, Allegheny County spokeswoman Amie Downs said. Election officials plan to make one more mail run to the post office at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow to catch any remaining ballots.
Under Pennsylvania law, election workers had to wait until 7 a.m. on election day to start opening and scanning the ballots, and couldn’t tabulate them until the polls closed at 8 p.m.
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What’s at stake?
Taking place amid soaring inflation, and with the fate of women’s access to abortion as well oversight of the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania at stake, the votes being tallied right now promise to have far-reaching consequences throughout the state and beyond.
It’s unlikely the results of every race, including the Senate race that could decide control of the chamber, will be known tonight. More than 1.4 million people requested mail and absentee ballots this year, and county workers weren’t allowed to begin processing them until this morning.
Philadelphia will delay the counting of as many as 30,000 mail ballots after Republicans sued to get the county to check those voters against lists of voters who voted in person to ensure no one votes twice. The county won the suit after arguing the process hadn’t identified a single double vote in the last three elections, but city commissioners voted to run the check anyway.
First Published: November 9, 2022, 1:00 a.m.
Updated: November 9, 2022, 1:31 a.m.
