Chester County Pennsylvania election officials decided to extend voting hours Tuesday, keeping polls open until 10 p.m. after a disastrous start to the general election.
Poll books where voters sign to show they are a registered voter in the county only listed Republicans and Democrats. The names of some 75,000 independent and unaffiliated voters were not in the book, meaning they could not be verified as a registered voter and had to cast provisional ballots.
When a voter goes to a new polling place for the first time, Pennsylvania requires them to show identification and sign the poll book. After that, their signature from the previous year is in the book and each year they sign near their old signature.
Independent and unaffiliated voters are not allowed to vote in the spring primary election; that is for registered Republicans and Democrats only. One could guess the county was working with a primary poll book in the general election, but that is not clear. Chester election officials promised to return a call to The Federalist Tuesday but never did.
.jpg%2F800px-Prince_Charles_in_Aotearoa_(cropped).jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=f7d6c5c47f97417bea666dd4925a05007f2eba108b07ed566da3263a440e5ace)