Turnout was 67.5 % in Montco; 2 candidates had local ties

NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County voters showed up for the 2022 general election.

The state’s third most populous county recorded 607,000 voters, resulting in a 67.55 percent voter turnout rate, according to Montgomery

County’s election summary report.

Of the 410,259 ballots cast, 296,366 were submitted in-person at 426 precincts on Election Day. There were 118,224 absentee and mail-in ballots returned to the Montgomery County Office of Voter Services. While 113,893 have been counted, 4,331 were segregated and “pending evaluation,” according to the election summary report.

A recent state Supreme Court ruling said ballots with no date on the envelope were to be segregated

Election results remain unofficial until the election is certified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

Smooth election

Montgomery County Board of Elections Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. said he was pleased with how the 2022 general election went.

“Montgomery County had a smooth Election Day. In-person voting was steady throughout the day with no major issues at the polling locations,” Lawrence told MediaNews Group Wednesday morning. “Mail-in ballots were counted efficiently and mostly finished early in the morning.”

The county’s election board and District Attorney’s Office released a tip line ahead of Tuesday’s election where vot

ers could report any instances of suspicious activity.

Kate Delano, director of communications for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, said Wednesday that Tuesday was a “quiet day on the election front. We have no reports of anything significant.”

One snafu was reported by a voter to The Reporter in an email Tuesday. The voter said the drop box at the Lansdale District Court office at 430 Pennbrook Parkway was not open at 8 a.m. County voter services officials said that both employees assigned to open the box were caught in a traffic jam due to a car accident. The box was reported open within an hour.

Oz, Shapiro’s ties to Montgomery County

Pennsylvania had two high profile races during this election: governor and U.S. senator, both with candidates who have ties to Montgomery County.

In county voting in the governor’s race, Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro received 281,094 votes over Republican Doug Mastriano’s 120,594 votes.

Mastriano is a state senator in Pennsylvania’s 33rd legislative district, which represents constituents living in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, and York counties.

Shapiro has deep roots in Montgomery County, growing up in Dresher. The Abington resident served as a Montgomery County Commissioner and state representative in the 153rd legislative district before taking on the attorney general role in 2017.

He held his victory party on election night at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks.

“Tonight, voters from Gen Z to our seniors, voters from all walks of life, have given me the honor of a lifetime, given me

the chance to serve you as Pennsylvania’s next governor,” Shapiro said.

Statewide, unofficial returns recorded Shapiro with 2,767,209 votes and Mastriano with 2,131,665 votes as of Wednesday morning, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Hoping to fill outgoing Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat, Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz faced off in a race that received national attention.

In Montgomery County, local voters cast 255,423 votes for Fetterman and 142,177 votes for Oz.

Oz, a television personality known as Dr. Oz, also has ties to Montgomery County. His campaign website said he lives in Bryn Athyn with his wife in her family’s home. Oz’s residency in Pennsylvania has been brought up throughout the campaign season as Fetterman has attacked him for having moved from New Jersey just in time to file for the primary.

Across Pennsylvania, unofficial returns showed Fetterman with 2,501,681 votes and Oz with 2,364,983 as of Wednesday morning.

Midterm voter turnout in Montco

The 2022 general election is comparable to that of 2018. The previous midterms brought in 384,728 votes and a 67.54 percent turnout rate, according to a 2018 election summary report. There were 367,959 votes cast in-person and 16,769 absentee ballots, prior to the passage of the Act 77 legislation permitting no excuse mail-in voting. Turnout grew significantly as compared to the 2014 midterm election which had a 48.26 percent voter turnout.

The counting of provisional and military ballots in Montgomery County has not yet started.