Cortés reminds voters of Pa. voter registration deadline

Pedro Cortés wants your votes.

The Pennsylvania Secretary of State isn’t running for anything, but as the Keystone State’s top election official, he is heading into the home stretch of a 2016 race with broad implications.

“All elections are historic,” he told the Centre Daily Times Tuesday. “But when people ask me ‘Why should I vote?’ I turn the question around and ask ‘What is important to you?’ ”

The answers he gets back from Pennsylvanians are often similar. Jobs, the economy, taxes, health care, education.

“Well that’s the reason you should vote, because of everything you just described. Everything that affects your life is decided by your elected officials,” Cortés said.

The 2016 election is a presidential year, with Pennsylvania being a swing-state battleground in the national race between Democrat Hilary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Then there’s the statewide contest for U.S. Senate between incumbent Republican Pat Toomey and his Democratic challenger, Katie McGinty, plus U.S. Congressional races, state house and senate races, and Pennsylvania line offices like auditor general and attorney general.

And if you want to vote in any of them, you have to register by Oct. 11.

“We’re only a week away from the deadline to register or update your records,” he said.

While many focus on the “registration” part, in a county with a massive college presence like Centre, “updating” can be even more important.

“There is the possibility of someone who may have been registered back at home,” Cortés said.

But that doesn’t translate to a polling place at campus. Conversely, if you register while you’re at Penn State, that doesn’t mean you can vote at home when you graduate unless you update your records.

“The only option would be to travel,” Cortés said. “If you vote in a county where you’re not registered, it will not be counted.”

That’s something that could be contentious in this election.

In Altoona in August, and again in Mannheim days ago, Trump made references to possible problems and urged voters to watch the polls.

Cortés stressed that is not something that anyone can do.

“In Pennsylvania, we are committed to making sure the elections are smooth and fair,” he said. “Any time that you put out a message that there could be fraud, that could turn into events of intimidation.”

Cortés said his office is talking to every county about not just how to handle the election, but how to handle possible problems.

“We issue guidance to the counties on how to deal with intimidation, how to talk about polling place conduct,” he said. “Only certain individuals can be at a polling place. You have to be credentialed.”

Cortés is optimistic about how the 2016 election will go, something he credits largely to those individual counties. In Centre County, that office is led by Director of Elections Joyce McKinley.

“She is really fantastic, a tremendous asset to Centre County,” he said.

Cortes urged people to take advantage of the state’s registration website, www.votespa.com.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 11:54 PM with the headline "Cortés reminds voters of Pa. voter registration deadline."