Polls close in Pennsylvania as votes are counted; results start to come in

Long lines were reported around the Philly region, from the city to the suburbs, throughout the day, and even as polls closed in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey 8 p.m. Tuesday.

That means clerks will begin reporting results.

But results for the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are likely to take time as counts are scrutinized in Pennsylvania, and Philly could take center stage nationally.

You heard the lyrics, she leaves quite an impression!

Pop star Sabrina Carpenter, who was born and raised in Quakertown, helped register 35,814 new voters and got another 263,087 to check their voter status.

That's according to HeadCount, the nonprofit nonpartisan voter registration group that partners with celebrities and musicians to engage with their fan bases on voter access.

During most elections about 200 people cast ballots at the polling place inside the La Mott Community Center, named for abolitionist and suffragist Lucretia Mott, who made Cheltenham Township her home.

On Tuesday the number of voters more than tripled, topping 600 with an hour to go before polls closed and a stream of voters still coming through the doors in ones, twos and threes.

“This has reminded me of when Obama ran for office,” said Gerry Brown, the founder and president of La Mott Citizens United, and who serves as Democratic committee person.

The eyes of the nation — and of Donald Trump — are on Philadelphia's ballot-counting center as polls prepare to close and the state's in-person returns are expected to arrive.

In a marked change from 2020, the city's votes this year are being tallied at a massive warehouse in the Northeast section of the city, as opposed to the Convention Center in Center City.

The 2024 site is something of a fortress, with a single-gate entrance guarded by security, while law enforcement officers are scattered about the sprawling property.

Former President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social on Tuesday afternoon that there has been “a lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia” throughout the day.

Where that “talk” was coming from is not clear. Aside from a few minor dustups — the kind typical of any election day in a big city — Republicans on the ground in Philadelphia said things were going well.

”We see it very smoothly here,” said Vince Fenerty, chairman of the city’s Republican party. “I haven’t heard about any complaints of people cheating in Philadelphia.”

Voters in various locations in Burlington County said Tuesday they had to wait three or four hours to vote because of long lines some were attributing to new voting machines, while officials cited record turnout as the likely cause.

Regardless, county officials said on social media that all locations would remain open until the last person in line by 8 p.m. can vote.

One man at the B. Bernice Young School in Burlington Township said he waited four hours to vote. And some voters at the First United Methodist Church in Moorestown reported having to wait more than three hours.

Less than an hour before polls were set to close, Germantown residents danced outside Happy Hollow playground.

“It’s been like this all day,” said committee person Stephanie Graham. “We are so glad to see it because this is normally a low turnout place.”

Shortly before 7:30 p.m., the polling site, which encompasses parts of the 10th and 12th wards, had over a 1,000 votes, Graham said.

Election night results have started funneling in.

Here's what's been called so far:

Vermont: Kamala Harris has won

A physical altercation took place outside a polling site in Reserve Township near Pittsburgh, a politically mixed small town. Former President Donald Trump carried Reserve by 1.8 percentage points, or just nine votes in 2020 (Trump garnered 234 votes and Biden garnered 225), though locals anecdotally said they’re seeing bigger turnout this year.

A video provided by Susan Vincent, the wife of local Commissioner Edward Vincent, 67, shows a man shoving the commissioner against the outside of the poll site building before walking off with wrinkled and ripped up signs in his hand for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Edward Vincent had been trying to retrieve his sign board — which had been decorated with Democratic candidate signs — from the man, who dragged the board down the sidewalk with a younger man, according to the Vincents and an eyewitness.

The city's top election officials say there is no evidence to Donald Trump's election night claim that there is "massive cheating" in Philadelphia.

"Philadelphia elections are safe, simple, and secure, and they have always been," said Philadelphia Commissioner Omar Sabir during an impromptu news conference. "There is no cheating, there's no smoke to it. People say things, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is true."

Trump posted the baseless claim to his Truth Social account around 4:40 p.m; the former president claimed there was "lots of talk" about the alleged cheating, and offered a vague suggestion that "law enforcement" were being activated.

There is no polling place on the campus of the University of Scranton. So student leaders including senior John Sinclair, a political science major and the student government’s chief of staff, petitioned the school to let them borrow some shuttles.

The university’s administration, he said, was fully supportive.

Sinclair got behind the wheel himself of a University of Scranton Royals van on Tuesday, ferrying fellow students to the polling place at Scranton High School.

Just after 7 a.m., the parking lot at the Mary McMullan Building in Pennsbury, Chester County, was already full.

Jennifer Klimas, 57, a registered Republican, said she felt safer when Donald Trump was president. A few weeks ago, she was driving home late at night from South Jersey back home to the Chadds Ford area, when she got lost and couldn’t find her cellphone.

Klimas said she pulled over and was assaulted by two men who approached the car and stole her purse.

Brigid Gallagher, 35, who works in alumni relations for the West Chester University Foundation, said her primary issue in the presidential election -- and in every election -- is abortion.

"I vote on a pro-life platform. I believe that life begins at conception and it's not something I'll stray from," she said. Gallagher was tabling for Republicans at a polling place on Union Street.

She said she felt Democrats had politicized the issue, adding that she draws a distinction between care for a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy and abortion. "An abortion is the intentional taking of a life," she said. "From state to state, there's discrepancies in how abortion is defined, and that's wrong. But no person has the right to take someone's life."

A Philadelphia judge has rebuffed accusations from Donald Trump’s campaign that Democratic poll watchers are violating state guidance by wearing badges identifying their party inside polls across the city.

At issue are the small 3.5-by-6-inch placards the party provided to its monitors that read “PA Dems” in quarter-inch font above words “VOTER PROTECTION” in much larger characters.

Trump campaign lawyer, Linda Kerns, described the badges as a clear example of “illegal electioneering” that runs counter to state guidelines barring election staff or volunteer poll watchers from wearing partisan material at the polls.

Nicole Lewis, 37, almost lost sight of what she was voting for after the non-stop deluge of calls, text messages, social media advertisements, and TV commercials muddled her perspectives on candidates.

Over the last couple of months, she said she received 2,600 calls and texts trying to persuade her to vote for specific candidates.

“This election with the calls, texts, commercials, and posts all up and down my social media, it was shoved down your throat — and very anxiety-inducing,” she said. “After a while they were all trying to be so terrible to the other side, it was hard to tell who was who.”

Around 4:30 p.m., former President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social that there has been “a lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia” throughout the day.

Where that “talk” was coming from is not clear. Aside from a few minor dustups — the kind typical of any election day in a big city — Republicans on the ground in Philadelphia said things were going well.

“We see it very smoothly here,” said Vince Fenerty, chairman of the city’s Republican party. “I haven’t heard about any complaints of people cheating in Philadelphia.”

While Villanova University voters endured a two-hour wait time on Election Day, University of Pennsylvania students and voting advocates say poll lines have been moderate.

University of Pennsylvania student Connie Pan, 21, said the voting lines were backed up at the ARCH building door at noon. The senior student, who voted at the Free Library at 40th and Walnut Streets, doubts the wait time was as long those reported at other universities.

Election volunteer Debbie Deren said the lines had been steady at the ARCH and Houston Hall poll locations, but nothing beyond the 20-minute mark.

For many of the Latinos in the majority-Latino city of Hazleton, identity and immigration factored into how they navigated politics this election.

Nitzia Rivera, 61, said while she's always been a Democrat but former president Donald Trump's third run inspired her to get-out-the-vote in her own family. She described feeling as though his rhetoric towards Latinos has gotten worse.

A controversial Trump rally in Madison Square Garden where comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” only fueled Rivera’s resolve. She described haranguing all her relatives about voting Tuesday.

An error impacting several tabulation machines in Milwaukee will cause results to be delayed by "a couple of hours" officials say.

About 31,000 absentee and in-person ballots need to be re-counted officials told reporters at CBS 58 and other local stations, citing a "tabulation error."

Multiple reports say after machines started to count the absentee ballots Tuesday morning, officials flagged an issue with how the machines were sealed. The doors to the machines weren't closed properly, according to a city spokesperson.

As Election Day approaches the beginning of the end, all eyes are on the seven swing states that will likely determine who will become the next president.

But for those following along, the timing varies depending on each state's laws, timing of the polling stations, and the number of absentee votes coming in.

To that end, final results could stretch days past Tuesday.

Around 4:30 p.m. the line of voters curled down half of North 12th Street to Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Actor Paul Rudd handed out water to people waiting in line to vote and around 5 p.m. Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” could be heard blaring from a DJ’s speakers.

Mahkai Long, 19, a sophomore at Temple University, had already voted at a different Philly polling site earlier in the afternoon but was waiting for his girlfriend, who was casting her vote, outside the Bright Hope Baptist Church.

She was a big reason he had voted on Tuesday, along with his grandmother, said Long, who voted with the Democratic Party down the ballot.

As the sun set over Woodland Elementary School in Lower Providence Township, several couples said they came out to vote for a better future for their children.

But they expressed mixed opinions over which presidential candidate would improve the country for future generations.

“The world was a lot better when [Trump] was in office,” said Nicholas Corliss, 42, who works at an auto-body shop.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office responded to voter intimidation complaints linked to an NYC-based group of Trump supporters repeatedly harassing voters at a polling station in Chinatown.

The complaints centered on the Chinese Christian Church and Center, a house of worship and polling place in the neighborhood.

“We’ve sent personnel several times in response to aggressive campaigning by Trump supporters outside Chinese Christian,” said DAO spokesperson Dustin Slaughter.

At some polling places in Abington Township, the one-time Republican bastion turned Democratic stronghold, the expected afternoon lull in voting never really arrived.

The morning lines of voters that snaked from doorways and sign-in tables had vanished, but a steady steam of people continued to arrive. Officials said they were readying for that flow to increase as people left work in the evening.

“Turnout has been very high,” said Richard Limburg, 71, a county elections judge at one of the two polling places at the Abington Baptist Church.

More than 200 voters, many of them college students, were lined up outside a Villanova University polling place at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, waiting for two hours or longer to cast their ballots.

The line snaked around the Mullen Center on Lancaster Ave. Students threw frisbees and ate Mexican food and pizza on the curb as Miley Cyrus’ “7 Things” blasted out of a large speaker and a news helicopter hovered overhead.

“People keep talking about how important Pennsylvania is. It feels like we’re the main character of this election,” said Emily Prus, 19, a Villanova freshman who had been waiting in line for two hours, but had recently been joined by a friend (will remain anonymous) who “totally cut in line.”

Throughout the city, young members of the LGBTQ+ community are voting for the first time, an earnest effort to back candidates they believe will fight for equity and access.

It's part of a larger movement by OutVote, an LGBTQIA+ youth-led organization mobilizing young, queer voters in swing states, including Pennsylvania.

Since the national group launched in

Dan Newlin, a major donor for Donald Trump and friend of the former president who has spent millions of dollars in ads in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, says the United States must “come together as Americans” regardless of whether Vice President Kamala Harris or fTrump wins the election.

“We must come together as Americans, and even though we may not agree or like the winning candidate, there will be a winner that we have to come together and be like, ‘OK, it didn’t go our way,’ but guess what? We are going to move forward as one country and march forward,” Newlin said in an interview Friday.

The Florida personal injury attorney also expressed confidence in the 2024 electoral system and its processes and the importance of accepting the results barring if “somebody does something that’s incredibly dishonest.”

Ant-Man, Friends, and 40 Year-Old Virgin actor Paul Rudd visited polling places near two Philadelphia area college campuses Tuesday to hand out water to people in line, some of whom had been waiting for hours.

He appeared at lines near Temple University and Villanova University and posed for photos with people in line. While at Bright Hope Baptist Church near Temple, the actor declined to speak to a reporter.

“A lot of people waiting in line for a long time to vote,” Rudd said in a video posted to X from Villanova. “Some of them might be thirsty, so we brought ‘em a bunch of water.”

For a brief time on Tuesday afternoon, a North Philadelphia restaurant was the center of Pennsylvania’s political world. At least the Democratic side.

Inside South Restaurant and Jazz Club were the governor, the mayor, two former mayors, a congressman, the City Council president, the district attorney, and what seemed like half of Philadelphia’s delegation in Harrisburg. The elected officials and their aides glad-handed with one another, posed for selfies, and scooped chicken alongside heaps of macaroni and cheese for lunch.

“The energy is good,” said Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who’d voted earlier in the day in Northwest Philadelphia alongside former Mayors Michael Nutter, Wilson Goode, and Ed Rendell.

At mid-afternoon, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker stopped at George Washington High School in the Northeast to show support for State Sen. Jimmy Dillon and Sean Dougherty, who’s running for State Representative.

Parker was in her element, posing for selfies with voters who approached her, shaking hands and thanking poll workers. She was pumped up, she said, about what she said figured to be big numbers of voters showing up.

“Turnout is just beyond anything we could imagine,” Parker said. “Everywhere I go, people have talked about it. I’m feeling so good right now - the energy is palpable.”

Lifelong Bridesburg resident Al Jones was among the Pennsylvanians who entered Elon Musk’s $1 million-dollar-a-day voter giveaway. Jones, 34, has no idea if he won any money.

The giveaway — powered by the tech entrepreneur’s pro-Trump America PAC — required entrants to be registered voters in swing states and sign a petition affirming their commitment to free speech and the second amendment by Oct. 21, the deadline to register to vote in Pa.

The sweepstakes has drawn criticism from the Department of Justice and public advocacy groups for paying to register voters, which is illegal. Of the $1 million dollar winners, the majority were registered Republicans — including three from Pennsylvania who had already voted by mail before winning the money.

Charlie Piechoski, a longtime worker at the Nelson M. Herron Playground polling station in Pennsport, couldn’t believe it.

By lunchtime Tuesday, voter turnout had exceeded anything he’d ever seen.

“Absolutely highest turnout yet in my 30 years,” Piechoski said, adding that over 500 of the station’s 700 listed voters had already voted.

The chair of the state Democratic party said Tuesday that he’s hopeful enough ballots will be counted by the end of the day Wednesday for there to be a statewide result in Pennsylvania.

“They’re going to do what they need to do, and they’re going to get it counted right,” said state Sen. Sharif Street, chair of the Pennsylvania Democrats, who noted that some of the largest counties in the state have made technological improvements over the last four years.

In 2020, it took four days for the race in Pennsylvania to be called for Joe Biden. Much of that could be attributed to a flood of mail ballots, which under state law can’t be counted until Election Day.

Cynthia Cassano’s eyes welled with tears in the parking lot of her Norristown polling place.

Cassano, a registered Republican who voted for Kamala Harris, said she hadn’t shed tears over the election in the weeks and months leading up to it. But on Tuesday morning, the emotions of the day hit her all at once when a reporter asked why she had cast her ballot for Harris.

“I’m tired of the hate,” she said, dabbing her eyes. “I really am.”

The Editorial Board of the Temple News, the editorially-independent student newspaper at Temple University, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris — sort of.

In the 587-word endorsement, the editorial board outlined the case against Trump while remaining light on praise for Harris. The vice president’s name appears only one time.

“The Editorial Board urges Temple students to utilize their fundamental right to vote to oppose another Trump administration,” the endorsement reads.

Top Philadelphia Democrats said in-person voter turnout was high through the morning hours Tuesday, projecting confidence that the deep-blue city will deliver more votes than it did in 2020.

“Lines everywhere I went,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said during an Election Day lunch at South Restaurant on North Broad Street. Parker is also the leader of the 50th Ward in Northwest Philadelphia, and she said turnout had passed 25% of their projections after just a couple hours of polls being open Tuesday.

“I’ve seen great turnout,” added state Sen. Sharif Street, chair of the state Democratic party. “What I’m hearing from committeepeople and ward leaders looks good.”

It’s called Polling Place Vote Tripling; a technique studies have shown quickly and cheaply increase turnout.

That’s why Katie Ries, a volunteer with Chesapeake Climate Action Network, came up from Washington, D.C., Monday night, took the 7 a.m. shift at Shuler Playground polling place and was greeting exiting voters with a challenge — to text three to five of their friends or family and remind them to vote.

A message from someone you have a relationship with is more effective than traditional stranger-driven tactics of phone calls, texts and door knocking, explained Jamie Demarco, federal elections coordinator from the network's temporary election day office — an Airbnb in Brewerytown.

Rene Comes and his wife, Marangely Oliveras, were planning to vote for former President Donald Trump.

Like many other Puerto Ricans in Reading, Pa., which is now more than two-thirds Latino, they object to mass illegal immigration. They also felt that Trump could stand up to other world leaders.

“Trump was for change,” said Comes, 47, a mechanic. “He was going to stop the people who was coming in because right now how many people are getting raped” by migrants, he said.

Many women who voted Tuesday, for either presidential candidate, cited their fears about what would happen if the other candidate won. Some, who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, also expressed hope that a woman would soon be in the Oval Office.

Edith Crawford, 63, of Linwood, said women’s rights, abortion access, and public safety were top of mind when she voted for Harris Tuesday morning.

Crawford worries that Donald Trump would create a dictatorship — especially after reading Project 2025, the 900-page policy plan that a conservative think tank created as a blueprint for a new Trump administration. The document calls for an overhaul of the federal government by dismantling agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education, replacing civil servants with political appointees and expanding the president's executive powers.

Today at the nation’s largest buffet, people are waiting in line for more than just donuts and scrapple. There’s a special on the menu today: democracy.

Shady Maple Smorgasbord in rural Lancaster County doubles as a polling place on Election Day, in a precinct that voted for former President Donald Trump by 80% of the vote in 2020.

Many voters said they would be voting for Trump again this year, pointing to his stances on the economy, immigration and abortion. Most said they voted straight-ticket Republican.

After voting in Palm Beach, Fla. Tuesday morning, former President Donald Trump said he feels “very confident” he’ll defeat Vice President Kamala Harris and win the election. 

“It won’t even be close,” Trump predicted, though he acknowledged the election will “take a long time to certify.”

Trump, who continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election he lost against President Joe Biden, wouldn’t commit to accepting the election results when asked by a reporter. He also shot back when asked if he’ll tell his supporters to avoid violence. 

When voters walked into the polls at the Pennsbury Township Municipal Building Tuesday morning, one of the political signs posted along the building’s walkway read, “Trump Low Prices. Kamala High Prices.”

That summed up voter Hannah Denisar’s feelings about the election.

Denisar, 28, a hair stylist and salon manager in Chadds Ford, Chester County, said she’s struggled to pay her rent and groceries in recent years. A registered Republican, Denisar said she’s voted for Trump in each presidential election since 2016.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is doubling down on his warning to would-be election meddlers.

A day after he said his office would be closely monitoring any illegal Election Day shenanigans — and his use of the memorable phrase “F around and find out” quickly rocketed around the internet — Krasner unveiled a T-shirt printed out by his staff that read “FAFO.”

“Now, I found myself, to everyone's surprise, getting a lot of attention yesterday over something I said, and I came in this morning only to find that these hard-working members of the Election Protection Task Force had gone out and printed up the T-shirt just so people will understand how serious we are, that we are not going to tolerate interference with a free, fair and final election here,” Krasner, a Democrat, said during a news conference Tuesday morning.

People who are voting at their specific precinct or voting district for the first time need to show identification. Voters who have voted in their precinct or district before do not need to show ID.

Here are some documents that can be used as proof of identity:

If your polling place changes locations, you don’t need to show an ID. In case you forget your identification document, know you might still get to vote with a provisional ballot.

Voting hours in western Pennsylvania's Cambria County have been extended until 10 p.m. due to a "software malfunction" that impacted voting Tuesday morning, officials said.

The county commissioners office said in a statement that the unspecified technical issue had "prevented voters from scanning their ballots," but that IT specialists were called in to review it, and that "all completed ballots will be accepted, secured, and counted."

"There is a process in place for issues of this nature," the statement said. It also said the issue "should not discourage voters from voting at their voting precincts" and that "no one should be turned away from the polls if they wish to cast their vote."

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is not on the ballot today, but she has a full schedule of political events arounds the city.

This morning, Parker plans to vote in person at the Masjidullah Mosque in Northwest Philadelphia. Parker is Philadelphia’s first female mayor, and her campaign described her casting a ballot to potentially elect Kamala Harris as the first woman to win the White House as a “history-making” moment.

She will be joined at the polling place by almost every living former mayor: W. Wilson Goode, Ed Rendell, John F. Street, and Michael A. Nutter. Parker’s immediate predecessor, Jim Kenney, is not listed as attending the event.

The seven battleground states have varying rules on when votes are counted, so it is expected to take some time before all votes are tallied in the key states that are expected to decide the razor-tight race.

“We’re going to be patient,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said during a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC. “We’re going to be very focused on what’s happening in the early part of the night. But we know some of our bigger battleground states are not going to be fully tallied until later in the night or early in the morning.”

O’Malley Dillon was hopeful that early turnout in Georgia and North Carolina was a positive sign for the Harris campaign.

At Simon Butler Elementary School, women’s rights was among the top concerns of voters. And many of the Chalfont and New Britain Township residents who lined up early to cast their ballots denounced former president Donald Trump’s stance on that issue.

Among them was self-proclaimed “former lifelong Republican” Jim Scanio, who said Trump’s rise to prominence in the party made him switch sides.

“I have this fear that the Republican party will try to control people,” he said. “I have women in my family, and I want them to have the health care they need.”

Proudly wearing a “Make America Great Again” ballcap, James Pizzo was not concerned about the increasingly violent and authoritian rhetoric of Donald Trump’s campaign. Instead, he was more worried about what Democrats were saying about Republicans.

“What about the Democratic Party?” Pizzo said, after voting at the East Passyunk Community Center in South Philadelphia. “What about what they call us? I’m not garbage. I’m not fascist. I’m not Hitler!”

It was a sentiment shared by many of the Trump voters at the polling station at 10th and Mifflin, a changing community where Trump voters cast ballots among a steady stream of Harris supporters.

There have been no major issues with voting in Philadelphia so far and the city will able to count ballots much faster than 2020, according to City Commissioner Seth Bluestein.

Bluestein, a Republican and one of three members of the city’s Board of Elections, is optimistic the bulk of mail ballots in Philadelphia will be counted by Wednesday afternoon.

“A lot of our voters have transitioned back to voting in person at polling places, so there will be fewer mail ballots to count this year,” Bluestein said on CNN Tuesday morning. “We’ve also purchased additional ballot extraction equipment to open up envelopes quicker, and we have more people working than we’ve had in the past.”

It felt a bit like 2022 at Laflin Burough's St. Maria Goretti Center in Luzerne County Tuesday morning.

When the polls opened at 7 a.m., voters learned poll workers were unable to access a scanner that processes ballots — the lock was jammed. Many people in line said the long wait reminded them of the 2022 election when the county experienced a paper shortage which prompted a judge to extend voting to 10 p.m.

The voting process did not begin until about 8:30 a.m. when workers began issuing paper ballots until someone from tech support arrived about five minutes later.

Former President Donald Trump spent the very early hours of Election Day in Michigan, where he wrapped up a late-night rally in Grand Rapids.

Trump plans to spend the day in Florida, where he is expected to vote in person — despite previously saying he would vote early. He’s scheduled to hold a campaign watch party in Palm Beach on Tuesday night.

Harris plans to attend an election night party at Howard University in Washington, a historically Black university where she graduated with a degree in economics and political science in 1986 and was an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Just after 7 a.m., as the fog lifted in Chester County, the parking lot at the Mary McMullan Building in Pennsbury was so full, voters had to park on the grass.

Voters streamed in and out of the polling spot to cast their votes in a purple county where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, though not by much.

Voter Benjamin Hickinbotham, a 43-year-old resident of nearby Kennett Square, said he voted a “straight Republican ticket.” His top issues, he said, were border security, abortion and the economy.

Alan Geist said he “gagged” as he voted Tuesday morning at Schwenksville Elementary School, but he cast his ballot for Donald Trump.

“It was not a happy vote,” said Geist, 68, an engineer. Geist, who didn’t vote for Trump or President Joe Biden in 2020, doesn’t like Trump’s authoritarian comments. He favors abortion rights at the beginning of pregnancy, and is concerned about environmental issues.

But he thinks Trump will face checks and balances from the government, which is “institutionally more liberal.” He also doesn’t mind what the U.S. Supreme Court has decided on abortion, viewing it as a conservative court “leaving it up to a Democratic process.”

The polls are now open in Pennsylvania, which could end up deciding who will be our next president — Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. 

In a sign of how close this election is, Harris and Trump tied with three votes each in Dixville Notch, N.H., a six-person voting location which traditionally opens and closes its polls just after midnight on Election Day.

The big question in Pennsylvania is when will all the votes be counted? Now that the polls are open, Pennsylvania has begun counting mail ballots. At 8 p.m., when the polls close, Pennsylvania will begin reporting the results. 

Retired Philadelphia police officer, Robert Muller, and his wife, Catherine, were among the first voters in line at the G.A.M.P. School in Girard Estates. The lifelong republicans both voted for Trump.

“The last four years were horrible with the economy and the immigrants,” said Catherine Muller. “I’m afraid for our grandchildren.”

Robert Muller, who wore a “Make Christmas Great Again” T-shirt agreed that immigration was the pivotal issue.

More than dozen people had lined up to vote at the Point No Point social club in Bridesburg before polls opened at 7 a.m.

Signs for former President Donald Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance covered the sidewalk in the Republican-leaning precinct. Another swayed in the air as it hung from the window of a rowhome across the street.

“We have to make it too big to rig,” said Bonnie Litostanski, 54, who pulled on her fire-truck red “Make America Great Again” cap as soon as she stepped out of the polling place.

Thomas Gianchetti, 61, was among the first through the doors of Aston’s James W. McGinn Community Center to vote when the polls opened at 7 a.m.

Dozens of people lined up outside the Delaware County voting location before the doors opened.

Gianchetti is a lifelong Republican and voted for Trump.

Officials across Pennsylvania are expecting more voters to arrive and cast their ballots in person Tuesday than they’ve seen in nearly a decade.

More than 6 million voters cast ballots in the presidential election in 2016; the lion’s share of those were in person on Election Day as Pennsylvania had not yet enacted widespread mail voting.

But since then, the voting landscape in Pennsylvania has dramatically changed.

At the end of a presidential campaign in which Pennsylvania was transformed into a 45,000-square-mile political arena, Vice President Kamala Harris made a final appeal Monday at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the state’s coveted 19 electoral votes.

“We need everyone to vote in Pennsylvania and you will decide the outcome of this election, Pennsylvania,” said Harris, who addressed a late-night crowd that had waited in a decided November chill at a raucous, hours-long Parkway rally.

Invoking Rocky (naturally), she said, “It’s good to be back in the City of Brotherly Love where the foundation of our democracy was forged, and here at these famous steps, a tribute to those who start as the underdog and climb to victory.”

In their pursuit of Pennsylvania’s precious 19 electoral votes, the presidential nominees should be grateful they aren’t running against Tuesday’s weather.

After a couple of quite chilly nights, Philadelphia’s temperatures will be in the 50s when the polls open at 7 a.m. and then head into the 70s after the sun cooks the remnants of any morning fog. It even will be warmer than it was during the April primary

It’s not just Philly: Temperatures in Erie are going to make a run at a daily record with a high in the mid-70s, which would be normal for the first week in June. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, aren’t the only people running for office, nor is Pennsylvania the only state holding an election, recent coverage notwithstanding.

Joy to the Polls will bring music to multiple voting locations around Philadelphia on Tuesday.

The non-partisan get-out-the-vote initiative which “leverages music to energize and mobilize voters” will be putting on shows with DJs and live performers at several Philly polling places on Election Day.

The buzziest party will be with DJ Jazzy Jeff (6 p.m.) and De La Soul (7 p.m.) at an as-yet-undisclosed locations in West Philly, with WBA all-star and North Philly native Kahlea Cooper. You can RSVP on the Joy to the Polls website or their Instagram account.

The 2024 presidential election is just around the corner, and The Inquirer’s voters guide is bringing you key information about your ballot in Pennsylvania.

General elections — this year’s held on Nov. 5 — determine which candidates will be elected for their respective offices. The major party candidates on the ballot are typically chosen through the primary elections held in the spring. Voters can pick any candidate in the general election, regardless of their political party. This guide provides key points for all federal and statewide races as well as state legislative races in Philadelphia and its four collar counties.

The ballot will be crowded this year. Pennsylvanians will vote for U.S. president; their representatives in the U.S. Senate and House; representatives in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, including members of the state House and state Senate; as well as auditor general, attorney general, and treasurer.