What district am I in again?
You probably heard about the state going through a redistricting process during the past few months. A quick refresher: Every 10 years, following the U.S. Census examination of population changes, all states must adjust their congressional and legislative borders to allow for equal representation.
Pennsylvania actually lost one U.S. representative, which means our congressional map had to be redrawn. Meanwhile, lines for the state Senate and House also moved to accommodate for population shifts, as more urban areas tended to gain population and rural areas lost it.
The state has a helpful site that will let you know your Congressional, state Senate, and state house districts.
- Looking for information on the candidates running in your districts to represent Allegheny County? The WESA Voter Guide has overviews of all contested races and profiles of the candidates.
Find your polling place
If you’d like to vote in person for the primary, great! It’s a good idea to double-check your polling place in advance, because they can move due to a variety of issues. (During the 2020 primary, many counties, including Allegheny, consolidated polling places for COVID safety reasons.)
You can find your polling place at the Pennsylvania Department of State website.
Find your sample ballot
If you live in Allegheny County, you can find your sample ballot here.
In-person voting on election day
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. If you’re in line at 8 p.m., you will be allowed to vote.
Allegheny County has a bunch of YouTube videos it made for poll workers about how election day and polling places operate.
I registered to vote by mail, but now I want to vote in person!
If you applied for and received your mail-in ballot, but now you’ve changed your mind and want to vote in person, you’ll need to follow some rules.
- Bring your "ballot package" to the polling place. This means your ballot and all envelopes. The ballot comes in an envelope, but it also contains the secrecy and declaration envelope.
- Submit your "ballot package" to the poll workers so it can be "spoiled."
- They’ll have you fill out an “Elector’s Declaration to Surrender Their Mail Ballot” form that looks like this.
- OK, now you can vote in-person. Democracy in action!
If you don’t bring these materials with you to vote in-person, then you will have to vote provisionally — which just means it’ll take a little longer to count your vote, because they’ll check to make sure you didn’t try to vote twice.
