Update: Turnout rises in afternoon voting

By Mike Joseph

Election day weather turned bright and crisp Tuesday afternoon and seemed to invite more people to the polls after early morning turnout was light in many precincts.

CDT/Nabil K. Mark

Mark and JoDee Dyreson vote as their daughter Katie, 3, waits at Precinct College 43 East in the Mt. Nittany United Methodist Church in Lemont. Tuesday, November 3, 2009 is election day in Centre County. CDT/Nabil K. Mark

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“It’s a nice day — it’s beautiful day for voting,” College Township resident Carol Confer said after casting a ballot at Mount Nittany United Methodist Church on East Branch Road.

Harris Township resident Carol English, a retired social worker and a former Republican who switched to a Democrat last year, walked through a gauntlet of candidates outside the double-precinct at the Boalsburg Fire Hall, arrived safely inside and declared: “Everybody’s your friend today.”

The two Harris Township precincts — east and west — both reported higher than expected turnouts by early afternoon. Harris voters have as much if not more on their ballot than any other of the county’s 35 municipalities.

Four strong candidates are seeking two supervisors seats in Harris, and voters also have the district attorney and the State College Area School Board races to help resolve.

“I think turnout is a little bit more than we anticipated,” said Harris East election judge Sharon Martin. “We’ve been steady all day. We haven’t had backups, but we’ve been steady.”

Early turnout was light in many precincts, but Confer’s College East reported a stronger turnout than many polling places, with about 125 people casting ballots in the opening two hours.

“That’s not bad when there’s nothing on the ballot,” elections judge Barbara Moyer said. “Quiet, but not bad.”

At the Christian Church at William Street and Easterly Parkway, where State College South Central 2 votes, only three people waited outside for the polling place doors to open at 7 a.m., a far cry from the two dozen who waited in last year’s presidential election.

Outside the polling place, the church yard bloomed with Democratic and Republican yard signs — for six borough council candidates in addition to the district attorney and statewide judge races.

Democrat Elizabeth Goreham and Republican Joe Wakeley, rivals for borough mayor, had signs planted in the church yard, and a “No Goreham” sign also appeared along with a sign urging mayoral write-in votes for former council member Jeff Kern.

At 12:20 p.m., a State College resident was voter no. 41 in precinct 22 at the Knights of Columbus and was the only voter in the building, which houses two polling places. At about the same hour last year, the voter said, more than 300 people had voted ahead of him and the line he was in stretched around the parking lot.

And at Penn State’s Hetzel Union Building Tuesday morning, where five student precincts vote, fewer than 10 people in all had turned out in the first two hours.

“We’ve had more reporters than voters,” one precinct official said.

Jessica Pelliciotta, president of the Penn State College Democrats, stood in front of the HUB trying to find potential voters. Most of the students she approached showed little interest, but Pelliciotta said efforts to get out the student vote would be apparent later.

“It’s early,” she said.

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.