Voting has begun in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the race for the White House, as counties start mailing out ballots, offering over-the-counter voting in election offices and opening other avenues for voting.
In Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, voters have returned about 15,000 mail-in ballots, said Seth Bluestein, who sits on the city’s three-member election commission. That’s about 10% of the 150,000 ballots that were already mailed, Bluestein said.
Meanwhile, the city has opened seven of 10 planned satellite election offices to operate seven days a week.
Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, began hosting over-the-counter voting in the lobby of the county office building on Monday and said people who applied for mail-in ballots have started receiving them in the mail this week.
Montgomery County , the state’s third-most populous county, has started mailing out ballots and, on Friday, it will open eight satellite election offices where people can register to vote, apply for a mail-in ballot or complete a mail-in ballot on the spot. On Saturday, Montgomery County is planning to launch a mobile voter services van.