Tuesday’s presidential election turnout in one South Side Bethlehem precinct was perhaps slightly larger than in 2016, which was the last contest for a commander-in-chief before the pandemic.
Some 45% — or 1,853 out of 4,123 persons registered to vote — came out to Bethlehem’s 3rd Ward at the Banana Factory on West Third Street. That compares with 32%, or 1,394 voters, in 2016, according to data provided by Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure.
And 29.5% of voters in 2020 cast ballots at the Bethlehem precinct, a lower number attributable to the pandemic and the start of no-excuse mail-in voting.
However, McClure and county officials are having to answer questions about the long waits of up to six hours that the large number of voters — primarily college students — experienced much of Tuesday at Banana Factory. Those lines attracted national attention — as well as celebrities including comedian Wanda Sykes and actor Jonathan Groff, who greeted the voters waiting in line.
Compounding the problem was that one of three voting machines assigned to the precinct broke down early in the day, a Northampton County spokesperson told The Morning Call on Tuesday. That machine was replaced later in the day, and two additional machines were brought in.
McClure said the county deployed all possible assets to deal with high turnout not just at the Banana Factory, but at several other polling places. On Thursday night, he told County Council that nearly half of the 154 precincts saw more than 80% of registered voters come to the polls. No one on Council or members of the public at the meeting raised questions about the long waits..
A total of 175,621 people — nearly 75% of registered voters — cast ballots, including 116,667 on Election Day, county records show.
“There were long lines because it was presidential election,” McClure said Friday. “Stop trying to make it a story.”
The county was widely seen as an election bellwether in one of the most important swing states in the White House race.
The long lines at some precincts came a year after the county drew national attention for a clerical error that caused some votes on its machines to show up incorrectly in paper printouts, leading to confusion at the polls and finger pointing among officials. It led to the resignation of the county’s administration director, Charles Dertinger, who oversaw elections, and calls for change from at least three state lawmakers who represent the Lehigh Valley.
While McClure said Tuesday’s election went smoothly overall without any machine issues, the American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns that the long lines could have been disenfranchised voters.
Andy Hoover, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU, said the Banana Factory saw one of the longest lines of any polling place in Pennsylvania. The chapter joined a lawsuit filed on Election Day by Democrats to keep Bethlehem voting places open beyond 8 p.m. Northampton County President Judge Craig Dally denied the request to extend voting two hours.
Anyone who was in line at 8 p.m. still was allowed to cast a vote.
Hoover said Northampton County was not alone in having long lines.
“We saw a pattern around the state of polling places at colleges having long lines,” he said. Bethlehem’s 3rd Ward, which is near Lehigh University, drew many college students. Easton’s Lafayette College also saw long lines for some of the day, and voters also had to wait 90 minutes or more at Temple, Gettysburg, Villanova and elsewhere on or near campuses, he said.
Hoover did not blame poor planning by election officials, but said long waits are “potentially disenfranchising for voters who have the right to cast their ballots. And the job of election officials is to facilitate voters’ abilities to cast their ballots.”
McClure and other county administrators blamed a Republican poll watcher for causing some of the delays at Banana Factory by frequently asking questions and making demands of the election judge overseeing the vote.
County GOP Chair Glenn Geissinger said the poll watcher didn’t show up until around 4 p.m., while the lines ran long nearly all day. He accused McClure of playing politics.
While agreeing with McClure that the county election office and staff who helped with the polling worked hard throughout, he said, “It appears to me that the [McClure] administration failed to exert the additional effort necessary to make voters comfortable that they are doing everything they can to ensure fair and open elections.”
County spokesperson Becky Bartlett on Wednesday said the county provided one voting machine per 450 voters in a precinct, and officials took into account the voter turnouts in 2020 and 2022. They also had to add machines at several other precincts as lines grew early on.
The county generally delivers two machines for each of its 154 precincts, according to McClure, and has some backups available out of an inventory of 315 machines.
Scott Hough, vice chair of the county election commission, an appointed volunteer board that will certify the results Nov. 19, said Wednesday he thought voting went well overall. He said he witnessed long lines at seven of eight precincts he visited, and he also saw an election judge waiting an unspecified amount of time on the telephone to get an answer to a question.
“I think there are probably some things we should discuss about machines, and making sure that constituent services were properly serving the [judges and constables] who are working the polling places,” Hough said. “I would like to see more support on the ground.”
But overall, Hough added, “I don’t see any major area of concern, or something that is not adjustable.”
Officials on Friday began conducting an official tally of votes from Tuesday, as well as tabulating provisional, overseas and leftover mail-in ballots. The counting is expected to continue into next week, Bartlett said. The county is closed Monday for Veterans Day.
Results do not become official until they are certified Nov. 19 by the Northampton County Election Commission.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt on Thursday said in a social media post that there are estimated to be at least 100,000 ballots statewide to be adjudicated. Those include provisional, military, overseas and Election Day votes.
“We urge patience as election workers continue to do this important work, especially in contests where the margins are very close,” he said.
The Morning Call’s data journalist Eugene Tauber contributed to this report.
Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at [email protected].
