DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The race for the White House will likely be decided by Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania will likely be decided by the Philadelphia suburbs. Red and blue voters in very-purple Bucks County, looking to get their votes in early, were braving some pretty long lines.
The line outside the Government Services Building on Tuesday contained registered Republicans and Democrats who were confident in the system.
“I think it's wonderful, because it gives people flexibility. Because so many people work, you know, very specific hours and aren't able to take the time off work. So this is great,” said Irina from Holland, Bucks County.
The line outside the building wasn’t too intimidating, and county officials were saying the wait could be about an hour. Inside the building, however, the wait could stretch out by a few hours.
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“It was my wife that wanted early voting and try to avoid the lines — and that was a bit of a mistake,” said John Pachence from Doylestown.
“The lines are robust, to say the least. But we're here and we'll … we're in it now.”
Pachence had already been waiting for two hours and was stepping out to feed the parking meter for a third hour. He seemed to be taking it in stride.
“People in line are just joking and on their phones, and it's a relatively relaxed thing. There's no animosity or any problems in there. Seems very friendly.”
County officials say that what is called “early voting” is actually just on-demand, mail-in ballot voting. Voters in Pennsylvania can go to their county’s Office of Voter Services and fill out a mail-in ballot request form, then fill in that ballot, and just like a mail-in-ballot, put it in the secrecy envelope and the return envelopes and hand it in directly to the office.
Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie says it takes about 12 minutes for each applicant requesting the on-demand, mail-in ballot, as the county elections office needs to verify the voter’s eligibility, then print that voter’s specific ballot. They also need to print the return envelope with the specific barcode to ensure each voter can only cast one ballot.