Voting In Pennsylvania

To be eligible to vote in Pennsylvania you must be:

• A citizen of the United States for at least one month before the general election
• A resident of Pennsylvania and the election district in which you register and vote for at least 30 days before the general election
• At least 18 years of age on or before the day of the general election

Please note to vote in a primary you must be registerd and enrolled in a political party.

If you have a Pennsylvania driver's license, you must provide your driver’s license number on your registration form. If you do not have a Pennsylania license you must supple the last 4 digits of your social security number. If you do not have a Social Security Number, write “none” in the space provided for this number.

All first time voters must show ID. Acceptable forms of ID include:

• PA driver's license or ID card issued by PennDOT
• ID issued by any other commonwealth agency
• ID issued by the U.S. government
• U.S. Passport
• U.S. Armed Forces ID
• Student ID
• Employee ID

You can also show a non-photo ID issued by the commonwealth, including:

• Non-photo ID issued by the U.S. government
• Firearm permit
• Current utility bill
• Current bank statement
• Government check
• Current paycheck

The registration deadline is Monday, October 5, 2009 for the November 3rd General Election. If you are not currently registered or you are registered and want to change your party designation, you can do it on line or by using a mail in registration form.

To verify your voter registration status, please contact your local elections registration official.

To qualify for an absentee ballot, you must be:

• An individual who, because of elector duties, occupation or business (including leaves of absence for teaching, vacations and sabbatical leaves,) expects to be absent from your municipality of residence during the entire period the polls are open for voting on Election Day. This also applies to your spouse or dependents who are residing with or accompanying you for that reason and therefore also expect to be absent from their municipality during the entire period the polls are open for voting on Election Day.
• A qualified war veteran elector who is bedridden or hospitalized due to illness or physical disability and therefore will be absent from your municipality of your residence and unable to attend your polling place because of such illness or disability, regardless of whether you are registered to vote.
• A person who, because of illness or physical disability, is unable to attend your polling place or operate a voting machine. (Note: If you are a disabled elector, you may be placed on a permanently disabled absentee file.)
• A spouse or dependent accompanying a person employed by the commonwealth or the federal government, in the event that the employee's duties, occupation or business on Election Day require him/her to be absent from the commonwealth or the municipality of residence during the entire period the polls are open for voting on Election Day.
• A county employee who expects that your Election Day duties relating to the conduct of the election will prevent you from voting.
• A person who will not attend a polling place on Election Day because of the observance of a religious holiday.

Applications for absentee ballots are available from your county board of elections. A qualified absentee elector may apply for an absentee ballot either through an application form or letter. An application by letter or other document must be signed and must include the same information as required on forms prescribed by the secretary of the commonwealth. Completed and signed absentee ballot applications must be received by the county board of elections no later than 5:00 pm on the Friday before Election Day. The county board of elections must receive the completed ballot (either through the U.S. mail or by hand-delivery to the offices of the county board of elections) no later than 8:00 pm on Election Day. Absentee ballots delivered for absentee voters who do not have a disability will not be accepted or counted by theEmergency Absentee Ballot application,. This application must be notarized before it is submitted. The county board of elections will process and approve only those emergency absentee ballot applications that have been completed and signed by the applicant elector before a notary public. Emergency absentee ballot applications must be submitted to the county board of elections between 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday before Election Day and 5:00 P.M. on the Friday before Election Day.

Overseas citizens and U.S. military personnel can find information on how to register to vote and request an absentee ballot at the Overseas Vote Foundation.

Early voting is available through Pennsylvania's absentee ballot process.

The next general municipal election will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 (Monday, October 5, 2009: Registration Deadline).

Please check with your local board of elections office for more information on local elections.

In order to be a poll worker in Pennsylvania:

• You must be registered to vote in Pennsylvania
• You must be at least 18 years of age
• You will be entitled to compensation
• You must be a resident of election district for the 30 days prior to the election.
• Students enrolled in a high school who are 17 years old with residency in the county may be appointed with written permission from a parent or guardian and school principal

To sign up, contact your local board of elections.

The polling place will be open from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Time off to vote is subject to the employer. Pennsylvania state law does not require employers to grant time off to vote for employees.

You can find your polling place by utilizing Pennsylvania State's poll locator tool.

You are provided the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot if:

• You appear to vote and claim to be properly registered and eligible to vote in the election district but your name does not appear on the district register (poll book) and elections officials cannot determine your registration.
• Regardless of whether your name appears on the general register, you do not have an approved form of identification the first time you appear to vote in an election district.
• An election official asserts that you are not eligible to vote. (In a primary election this includes if you claim to be registered for a particular political party, but the district register indicates you are registered as a member of another political party.)

You are required to vote by provisional ballot if:

• Your voting as a result of a Federal or State court order.
• You are voting as a result of an order extending the time established for closing the polls by state law that is in effect 10 days before an election.

If you vote on a provisional ballot, you will be ask to:

• Complete and sign the provisional ballot affidavit on the back of the provisional ballot affidavit envelope.
• Complete a provisional ballot in an accessible and private area of the polling place.
• Seal the completed provisional ballot in a secrecy envelope.
• Seal the secrecy envelope in the provisional ballot affidavit envelope.
• Sign the front of the provisional ballot affidavit envelope.
• Return the sealed provisional ballot affidavit envelope to a polling place election official.
• Receive your provisional ballot identification receipt.

If you already voted by absentee ballot for this election, you will be asked to cancel your absentee ballot. Within seven days after the election, the county board of elections will examine the provisional ballot to determine the validity of your completed provisional ballot. At least seven days after the election, using the information provided to you on the provisional ballot identification receipt, call 1-877-VOTES-PA or visit the department of state. Provide your provisional ballot identification number. You will be told whether your provisional ballot was counted, partially counted or not counted. If your provisional ballot was not counted, you will be told why.

The voting systems used in Pennsylvania are optical scan, DRE, and paper ballots.

Optical Scan: With this system, you will receive a card or sheet of paper, which you take over to a private table or booth. The card has the names of the various candidates and ballot measures printed on it. With a pen or pencil you fill in a little box or circle or the space between two arrows. When you are finished filling out all the cards, you may bring the cards over to a ballot box, where poll workers will show you how to put the cards in the box. Or in some places, you may feed the completed cards or papers into a computer device that checks your card or paper right there at the polling place to make sure you have voted the way you want to and counts the votes.

Direct Recording Electronic (DRE): This is the newest kind of system in use in the U.S. All the information about who and what you are voting for is on an electronic screen like a TV or computer screen.

There are many variations of DREs because lots of companies are inventing new ones, and many cities, counties and states are trying them out. Usually, after you have signed in, the poll workers will give you a card that you slide into a device to start your voting session.

Some of these devices will show all of the candidates and ballot choices on one big screen. Often, with these big screen devices you push a button next to the name of the candidate you want to vote for (or yes or no on a ballot measure). On other DREs, the screen is set up to show “pages.” On each screen or page, there will probably be one thing to vote on. For example, on one screen or page, you might vote for president. Then you might move to the next page to vote for senator. Often these small-screen devices have a “touch screen,” where you touch the screen next to the name of the person you want to vote for. Other devices have a key pad. And some have a keyboard, so you can write in the name of someone you want to vote for.

You let the system know you are finished voting by pushing a button, touching the screen or entering something on a keypad.

Paper Ballots: Paper ballots are one of the oldest ways of voting in America. They are still used in a few places on Election Day. When you come to the polling place, you will get a paper ballot from the poll worker. You take it to the voting booth, and use a pen or pencil to mark a box next to your candidate and issue choices. You then drop the marked ballot into a sealed ballot box.

Information on local, state and federal candidates and ballot measures is available here.

Any voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be given assistance by a person of the voter’s choice, other than the voter’s employer or agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union.

For those voters who have a disability or are elderly and assigned to an inaccessible polling place, the Secretary of the Commonwealth has directed the county boards of elections to make available to those voters, upon their request, an Alternative Ballot. An Alternative Ballot may be cast with the county board of elections by 8 p.m. (or the close of polls) on Election Day. However, an application for an Emergency Alternative Ballot may be submitted until 8:00 P.M. on Election Day. The prescribed form by which an eligible voter might apply for an Alternative Ballot is available by:

For information on federal campaign contributions, please visit Open Secrets.