Election. Municipal voting ‘ran smoothly’ in recent contests statewide

Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced that the recent municipal primary election in Pennsylvania ran smoothly, with county elections boards reporting a minimal number of routine issues.

Counties received about 788,000 mail ballot applications for the primary - nearly 708,000 applications for no-excuse mail-in ballots and 80,000 applications for absentee ballots. As of 7:30 p.m. on election night, more than 74 percent of those mail ballots had been returned. Voters had until 8 p.m. to return their completed mail ballot to their county board of elections.

Department of State staff answered about 600 calls on primary day via the commonwealth’s 1-877-VOTESPA voter hotline . Most callers had questions about their voter registration status, polling place location, or mail ballot.

”First, I’d like to thank our county election officials and poll workers for conducting another free, fair, and secure election in Pennsylvania,” Schmidt said. “I also thank all eligible voters who did their part and cast their ballot in this primary election.”