HOW TO VOTE

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Nov. 7. If you are in line to vote before 8 p.m., elections officials are required to let you vote.

Polling locations can be found through a Pennsylvania Department of State website dedicated to voter services. Voters casting their ballots at a precinct for the first time need to bring an acceptable form of identification, as outlined by the state.

Voters must be registered by Oct. 23 to vote this November. Registration applications can be submitted online. The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, lets residents check their registration status online.

Voters also can request a mail or absentee ballot until Oct. 31. While mail and absentee ballots are technically different, they are functionally the same. Any registered voter can request a mail ballot without giving a reason.

Completed mail ballots must be received by the county by 8 p.m. on Election Day. They can be returned by mail or dropped off at the Elections Division in the County Office Building at 542 Forbes Ave., Downtown. The office will have extended return hours the week of the election. Drop boxes will be set up at the County Office Building closer to Election Day.

If applying for and submitting a ballot by mail, make sure you leave plenty of time to receive it, fill it out, and send it back in time for it to arrive on Election Day.

If voting by mail, make sure to carefully follow the instructions: Sign and date the declaration on the outer mailing envelope, and also put your ballot inside the inner “secrecy envelope.” Ballots submitted without the inner envelope are commonly referred to as “naked ballots” and can be rejected.

If you plan on hand-delivering your ballot, you can return only your own ballot — unless a voter has a disability and has designated you to deliver it for them with the appropriate signed forms.

Voters who requested but did not return mail ballots can surrender their ballot and mailing envelope at their polling place, then vote on the machine in-person. Or they can vote by provisional ballot at the polling place. (Provisional ballots are paper ballots that are only counted after elections officials ensure the voter hasn’t already voted.)

“Over-the-counter” voting began on Oct. 10 in the lobby of the County Office Building. This is effectively mail voting without the mail: Voters go to the Elections Division office and apply for a mail ballot. This application is the same as the one found online and can be completedin advance.

Voters can receive their mail ballot right there, fill it out, and return it to an elections worker at the office. A space is being set aside in the lobby area for voters to complete their ballots in private.