Why some Pa. voters didn't know who was on the ballot until they got in the booth

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Pennsylvania’s Democratic-majority Supreme Court voted 4-3 on Monday to impose the new congressional district map it drew. The previous map was widely seen as heavily gerrymandered. Republicans say they’ll fight the new map in federal court. (Feb. 20)
AP

YORK, Pa. — David and Brenda Miller pulled double-duty when it came to preparing to vote in Tuesday’s primary. 

They weren’t sure who would appear on their ballot in the congressional races. “We had to read everything because we didn’t know,” said David Miller, who is retired from Harley Davidson. “We thought we were in the district with Lancaster.” 

“The district with Lancaster” is the 11th District, represented by U.S. Rep Lloyd Smucker, a Lancaster County Republican. But it might have been that they were represented by U.S. Scott Perry, a York County Republican.  

They weren’t sure. 

And it wasn’t because they weren’t paying attention, or didn’t do any research into the matter. They just didn’t know for certain because they live close to the boundary between the two newly defined districts and weren’t sure exactly where the line was drawn.  

The Millers live in York Township. Until this year, when the state Supreme Court ordered the boundaries of the state’s congressional district redrawn, they had been represented by Perry in Congress. 

But York Township was divided between the 10th and 11th districts when the court imposed the new boundaries in an effort to combat partisan gerrymandering. That followed a ruling that the previous lines had been drawn to give Republicans an unfair advantage and deprive Democrats of a legitimate chance to compete in those areas. 

To further complicate matters, the Millers couldn’t just look up the sample ballot for their polling place because it contained both districts.  

At the Miller’s polling place — the Third Precinct of York Township’s Fifth Ward, at the Golden Connections Community Center — some voters in the Republican primary got a ballot on which Perry was unopposed. Others got a ballot in which they had a choice between Smucker and his challenger, Chet Bieler, running on a platform to the right of the incumbent. 

It turned out that they were in Smucker’s district, something they found out only when they saw his name on the ballot. 

“I wish they wouldn’t have done that,” Linda Miller said after casting her ballot Tuesday morning at the senior center just outside of Red Lion. “Hopefully, they know more about it than I do. Hopefully.” 

The Millers weren’t alone. A number of voters were unsure whose name would appear on their congressional ballot.  

Suzanne Madden, a pre-school teacher from the township, said she and her husband talked about it and couldn’t really reach a conclusion about which district they live in. Asked whether she was represented by Perry or Smucker, she said, of Smucker, “Is that the man from Lancaster?” 

She wasn’t sure. “I found out right now,” she said as she left the polling place. “It’s Scott Perry.” 

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Mike Reidy, left, and Elaine Garrusso, left, center of Mount Lebanon, Pa., check election returns on their phones with John Henninger, right, and Eric Larson, center, of Cecil Township, Pa., looking on at the election night party for Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate for the March 13 special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, in Canonsburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 13, 2018. 
Gene J. Puskar, AP
Bobbi Bauer, left, Khalid Husain, top, and Demetrios Germanos, center, celebrate with the crowd as results on the television say Republican Rick Saccone was closing the gap to under 1 percent of the vote at the party watching the returns for a special election being held for the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District vacated by Republican Tim Murphy, Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in McKeesport, Pa. The Pennsylvania congressional race between Democrat Conor Lamb and Saccone remains too close to call, with local elections officials still counting absentee ballots late Tuesday. 
Keith Srakocic, AP
Khalid Husain, left, and Demetrios Germanos, right, watch the returns for a special election being held for the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District vacated by Republican Tim Murphy, Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in McKeesport, Pa. Republican Rick Saccone is running against Democrat Conor Lamb. The Pennsylvania congressional race between Lamb and Saccone remains too close to call, with local elections officials still counting absentee ballots late Tuesday. 
Keith Srakocic, AP

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Politics, she said, “can be confusing.” 

Out front of the senior center was a Smucker yard sign. There were no Perry signs, not surprising since was unopposed in the primary. (Four Democrats, though did face off for the right to challenge him in November. Smucker’s Democratic challenger, Jess King, ran unopposed.) 

There was even further confusion for Bill McIntire, a retired contract administrator who lives in neighboring Equine Meadows. McIntire, a registered Democrat, was handed the wrong card when he went through the line at the polling place and when he looked at the ballot on the voting machine, it listed the Republican candidates. The error was corrected. He did get to vote in the four-candidate primary in the 11th, his new district. Some of his neighbors in the senior development off Cape Horn Road, though, remained in the 10th. “I don’t think anybody really knows which district they’re in,” he said. 

The judge of elections, Ed Tabor, said the polling place had prepared for the split primary, having “two sets of everything.” The poll workers, he said, “know pretty much what to do.” It went fairly smoothly, he said. 

Al Nowicki, a retired police officer from New Jersey who now lives in the township, wasn’t very pleased with the change.  

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