The BIGGEST problem by far was the number of people who came to the wrong polling place because of screw-ups by the local election board. All of the ubiquitous rural route addresses in the county have been replaced by street names and house numbers to comply with the regulations of E-9-1-1. As a result, many, many people had their polling places changed and it seemed willy-nilly (remember, these people were living in the same physical location), perhaps a poorly-conceived computer program? Sis said that people would bring their voter registration cards which clearly listed her polling location as their voting place, only to discover that the voter was not in the sign-in book. A call to the county election office showed that the location listed on the official voter card was incorrect and poll workers were able to direct the voter to the proper polling place. As far as she witnessed, no one was denied a vote, but plenty of people had to drive to another location. And yes, she said that her judge of elections spent the day on the phone. For a good chunk of the day, however, the judge couldn't get through to the election office because of heavy phone traffic, so the judge used her smart phone to access the official voter listing and was able to address voters' problems satisfactorily that way. The turnout in this polling location was approximately the same as 2008, by the way.
The other source of screw-ups were the people who relied on PennDOT to forward their voter registration/change of address to the county election board. PennDOT is not exactly a paragon of efficiency in this matter. A word to the wise: if you have changed your voting registration or signed up to vote via the Department of Transportation in PA, PLEASE contact your county election board before the registration deadline (usually early October) to be absolutely sure you are on the voter rolls.
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