“Nobody walked out. Everybody stood their ground.”

Those were the words from Jim Belardia, an election official at
the Third Precinct, Second Ward, in the City of Bradford Tuesday
night.

One woman even made it two minutes before 8 p.m. to cast her
vote at the Church of the Nazarene on North Bennett Street.

“We didn’t have any problems,” said Belardia, adding there were
242 votes cast there.

Other workers at that poll said they had lines at least 10 times
people deep during the 13-hour voting day. They said they did have
some voters who were nervous about using the electronic machines
and added that the most time-consuming aspect of the day was trying
to explain the steps to most of the voters.

“Even a caveman could figure it out,” said Ann Markowitz,
precinct worker at the church.

In the Fourth Ward, at Hill Memorial Church hall, officials said
of the turnout, “It was very good, extremely good. We are well over
the 300 mark.”

They did have trouble at the start – one machine was at a wall
that did not have electricity – but they did not have any problems
after that.

Doubling their voter turnout since the primary election was the
city’s First Ward.

Election official David Newman said there were quite a few
voters in at one time, waiting to vote, and they had to be kept
back to allow for voter privacy at the machine. He also said they
were instructed to turn the voting machine toward the wall even
more than it was since there is no longer a curtain for privacy
purposes.

Newman said the turnout was pretty good with 105 people voting –
in comparison to the 51 people that voted at the precinct for the
primary election.

Election officials at Futures Print Shop on Chestnut Street,
Second Precinct, said they had a good turnout with no problems.

Dick Cavallero, elections officer at the Sixth precinct, Second
Ward, said they had 235 voters turn out.

“We were way up from the primary,” he said adding that the only
problems they had were in the beginning getting set up.

The Sixth Ward, First Precinct, at Asbury Methodist Church on
East Main Street saw fewer voters than usual in this general
election. Their total was 266.

They said the electronic machines were no problem at all and
people were surprised by how easy to use they were.

The precinct at St. Bernard Church in Bradford Township also had
trouble getting started when they had about 15 to 20 people leave
because the officials could not log into the voting stations.