Stephanie Strasburg, TLC Libations, Homewood, 11:50:

Lit by the glow of the CBS News broadcast, One PA organizers Sage Cruz and Nydea Graves sat quietly side by side as the bartender behind them closed up. The two had traveled from Philadelphia to support the groundwork efforts in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

“We’ve done pretty much everything we can do on Black middle class communities,” said Cruz, after trying to rally her fellow organizers for a group photo. “Our organization has hit on over 600,000 doors and made over 1.4 million phone calls statewide.” 

Beside Cruz, scrolling through poll results in a camo Harris-Walz hat, Graves kept up her faith in Pennsylvanians’ long commitment to the fight for democracy. The battles of Gettysburg, the creation of the Declaration of Independence, the historic labor organizing in Pittsburgh’s steel vallies, even the Underground Railroad stop underneath her Philadelphia high school.  “These are all places where Pennsylvania’s have fought over and over again for our democracy,” she said. “We’ve done too much in this state to not feel optimistic.” 

As the party wrapped around 10:30, she carried that optimism and the recent memory of their hard work to the elevator. 

“An endorsement is like a double edge sword,” she said of the organization’s support of Harris. 

“We will work hard to get you elected, but we’ll work just as hard to hold you accountable to our communities.”

Eric Jankiewicz, Hickory Heights Golf Club, South Fayette, 10:45 p.m.

State Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville, declared victory to a roomful of supporters at a golf club in Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs.

“I am honored, I am grateful,” he said. “And I’m ready to continue the fight. It’s a fight for government that serves the people. Not the other way around. It’s a fight to apply the brakes on runaway taxes and enact policies that reduce inflation. It’s a fight for a prosperous economy for working families. I’m grateful to every one of you.” 

Robinson thanked small business owners, combat veterans and the “hard-working union members who know that good jobs don’t have a party.” 

The Associated Press has not yet called the race, with Robinson leading by a roughly 5% margin and 10% of ballots still to count.

Dick Jewell began raising funds for political candidates in the 1980s for state Auditor General and now, nearing 80, he serves as Robinson’s finance chair. 

Jewell said he was first introduced to Robinson during the senator’s first run four years ago. 

“Robinson is one of the hardest working people I know,” Jewell said. “He did all the grunt work for his first term”

Jewell said Robinson is unmarried with a girlfriend, allowing him to prioritize public life above most candidates he’s worked for. 

“I’d love to see him rise to senior leadership,” Jewell added.

Looking up the ballot, Jewell characterized the presidential matchup as unprecedented.

In either outcome, Jewell said, the country will need “a lot of healing.”

“I’ve never seen partisanship so ugly.”

“Calling someone a liar has become so devalued. In the old, old days if you called someone a liar that might end up in a duel.”

Eric Jankiewicz, Shaler Villa Social Hall, Shaler, 7:30 p.m.

Concerns over immigration and the economy led John Kindler, 65, to vote for Trump this evening.

“I want the country to be like it used to be,” he said. “I think our border security is weak and the economy is being neglected.”

Kindler also voiced support for fossil fuel extraction, which he said would receive a boost under Trump’s leadership and spur economic growth.

“When he was president we had strong overseas policy and our unemployment was low.”

Charles Miller, 57, said women’s rights were a deciding factor in his vote for Kamala Harris tonight.

“It’s pretty obvious that she would be the one to support,” Miller said. 

The right for women to determine their health care choices is important to Miller, who said under Trump the “opposite would happen,” referencing the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a Supreme Court flipped by Trump appointees.

Stephanie Strasburg, Skyview Volunteer Fire Company, West Mifflin, 6:55 p.m.

Voting has been steady all day here. Judge of Elections Ashley Curry got some fresh air outside as two quads drove past the sloping road out front.

Some years the vote count at the fire house is not much over 100, but this year, “we’re past over 500 votes. A lot of people are coming out to vote this election. Lots of 18-year-olds, lots of first-time voters.

Amber Frantz and Maddy Franklin, Oakland Career Center, 3:45 p.m.

Maddy and I are wrapping up our coverage, ending the day at Oakland Career Center where a once-lengthy line has dwindled down to a 15-minute wait.

Over the last hour, we caught up with several voters, all of whom were men who voted for Harris.

Andrew Jeannot, 20, was the first person today to mention that changes to DEI policies were a decisive factor in capturing his vote. As a Black man, he noted Trump’s increasing influence among his demographic and has found himself in debates about Trump’s leadership.

Sheridan McHenry, a member of the IBEW Local #5 Union, expressed similar concerns about Trump. McHenry said he voted for Harris because Trump is “against unions.”

We finished the day by talking with Erik Leonard, 21, who stuck to his “liberal family” roots in voting for Harris. While Leonard says he hasn’t paid attention to pre-election coverage, he will “keep an eye out” for the results, but there will be no election watch parties in his evening.

Maddy Franklin, Oakland Career Center, 3:11 p.m.

Editorial intern Amber Frantz and I have journeyed away from Pitt’s campus, where voting activity appeared to be dwindling. Now, we’re outside of the Oakland Career Center, a popular polling location for students who live off campus. 

Here, the line wraps around the building, and we’ve been told that the wait was up to an hour and a half in some cases. Arti and Morgan, 20-year-olds who declined to give their last names, said they observed no issues with the voting process here but had seen a few people come to the center to cast a ballot who were then redirected to other locations. 

Both women said they voted for Harris, with Arti mentioning Harris’ plan to back the middle class and being the daughter of immigrant parents as being some deciding factors for her. Morgan cited Harris’ stances on reproductive health, particularly access to IVF, and LGBTQ+ rights as securing her vote.

Venuri Siriwardane, Allegheny County elections warehouse, North Side, 2:38 p.m.

Around 200 Allegheny County employees are in the final stages of pre-canvassing some 225,000 mail-in ballots.

Pre-canvassing is the process of preparing ballots before they’re officially returned. To make it easier to quickly tabulate results, workers check outer envelopes, verify signatures, remove ballots from inner, secrecy envelopes and inspect them for errors. (Canvassing, which follows, involves making sure that every valid ballot is counted.)

As of 2:20 p.m., all secrecy envelopes have been extracted from outer envelopes. Ballots were being scanned by 10 scanning machines here in the warehouse. County spokesperson Abby Gardner expected pre-canvassing to wrap up shortly, at which point most workers will be dismissed. Some workers will remain to process ballots that the U.S. Postal Service delivers to the warehouse by 8 p.m.

Two monitors mounted on a wall show the scanning and tabulation process. The lower leftmost feed shows the scanning process, while the feed next to it on the right shows the tabulation room.

This morning, according to Gardner and others, two Republican poll watchers attempted to observe the pre-canvassing using binoculars. The county stopped them from doing so, after which GOP attorneys in Courtroom 709 of the City-County Building negotiated with the county. The poll watchers may use binoculars, but not while ballots are being extracted from secrecy envelopes, and not in the area where votes are being scanned. Neither the dispute nor the agreement are believed to have reached the level of a formal court motion.

Maddy Franklin, William Pitt Union, Oakland, 2 p.m.

Election Fest is in full swing here with booths set up to snap photos, stain tie-dye shirts, play cornhole and grab as many stickers as humanly possible. Gen Z favorite artists Chappell Roan and Charli XCX have supplied background music for students passing through William Pitt Union Plaza.

Most of the students I’ve talked to say campus is generally lively today, but friends Anjola Oludayo and Maria Hernandez Castaneda said they felt it was unusually quiet. They chalked that up to classes being virtual, though. The friends said they felt surprisingly safe given the high stakes of the close-polling presidential race.

“While a lot of people don’t agree with everything [Harris] is for, she’s still allowing us to keep the right to disagree with her and not tell us to follow something,” Hernandez-Castaneda said.

Democracy also came up with other students I talked to, like 21-year-old Angie Opoku, who said it felt “liberating” to vote as a Black woman on campus. Derek Haeussler, 20, said it felt “surreal” to cast a ballot in his first presidential election.

Climate change and abortion rights came in as top issues for many. For others, students’ rights, voter’s rights and the humanitarian crisis in Palestine, were front of mind as they cast their ballots.

Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource newsroom, 1:18 p.m.

We are on the lookout for problems with the administration of today’s election — both legitimate complaints and attempts to misinform the public.

One misleading claim was debunked earlier today by Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco, the chairman of the county’s Republican committee. He clarified that a picture circulated on social media claiming to show Pennsylvania ballots pre-marked in favor of Harris did not resemble Pennsylvania ballots at all, and contained candidates that do not appear on the state’s ballots. “Don’t buy into these false claims and please don’t spread them,” DeMarco wrote.

Cameron Croston, Soldiers & Sailors, Oakland, 12:30 p.m.

Maddy Franklin, William Pitt Union, Oakland, 11:45 a.m.

While the Pitt campus gears up for an Election Fest just outside of William Pitt Union at noon, I heard many students asking each other if they voted. Max Silver, 19, walked out of WPU proclaiming he’d just “voted for the G.O.A.T.” on a phone call. Who’s the greatest of all time? Harris, he said, but that’s not to say he agrees with all of her policies.

Some students on Pitt’s campus weren’t nervous, including 21-year-old Anagha Venkatesh who said it was exciting to vote in a presidential election for the first time. As a person with Indian roots, sharing a cultural connection with Kamala Harris — who has both Indian and Jamaican roots — made it all the more special. As a kid, she said she never imagined it happening.

Charlie Wolfson, Montour High School, Robinson, 10 a.m.

Sarah S., a 34-year-old Robinson woman who declined to share her last name, said she is voting Republican for the first time this election, including a vote at the top of the ticket for Trump.

“I think over the past couple years there’s been a dangerous precedent set with trying to suppress freedom of speech,” she said outside her polling place at Montour High School.

She added that she was disturbed by the recent slaying of a police officer on a trail she uses often; local Republicans are blaming a progressive magistrate for releasing the suspect on non-monetary bond in 2023.

Another Robinson woman, 46-year-old April Hoffman, said she voted for Trump today because of the economy and border security. She said she has voted Republican the last couple elections but not always up and down the ballot.

Both women said they vote in every election.

Maddy Franklin, Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, Oakland, 10:50 a.m.

I’m PublicSource’s higher ed reporter, and today I’m roaming the University of Pittsburgh campus, in Oakland.

Outside of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, 21-year-old Sophie Stefancic and 19-year-old Bree Francis had set up a station on behalf of the organization Feminist’s Majority. As a biology and pre-med major, Stefancic is concerned with securing reproductive rights, which compelled her to get involved in voter engagement efforts. 

Francis feels this election is a decisive one for “the future of the country,” and for her, living in Pennsylvania has only heightened its importance. 

The women say they’ve been well-received on campus, which was evidenced by cars honking as they drove by their “Honk for Harris” sign.

“Every time they [honk], it’s like, OK, we’re not out here by ourselves. They are people behind us and that’s a really encouraging feeling, knowing that there’s other people out here that not just agree with us but are willing to honk in the middle of the busiest intersection in town and say ‘I agree with you, I’m with you, I’m here with you.’”

Cameron Croston, Swissvale Community Food Bank, Swissvale, 10:40 a.m.

I’ll be roving the city and near suburbs for PublicSource today, capturing the electoral process in images. First stop: U.S. Rep. Summer Lee just cast her vote here. The District 12 Democrat faces a Republican opponent, James Hayes, but the race has gotten little attention in a deeply blue district.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a Swissvale Democrat, greets voters at the Swissvale Community Food Bank, where she votes, on Nov. 5, 2024. Lee faces Republican James Hayes in the General Election, in a race that has attracted little attention in blue District 12. (Photos by Cameron Croston/PublicSource)

Venuri Siriwardane, City-County Building, Downtown, 10:11 a.m.

I’m in Courtroom 709, where Common Pleas Judge Jack McVay Jr. is set to preside over any election-related disputes that emerge today during the day, and other judges are set to sub in later. There are around two dozen professionals in the courtroom, presumably including attorneys, and they’re huddled up talking about provisional ballots. But there’s no formal argument or motion at this time, and the judge is not yet on the bench.

I’m Charlie Wolfson, and I’ll be monitoring the voting process all day here at PublicSource. Allegheny County’s 1,327 polls opened at 7 a.m., and almost all of them opened on time and without incident. According to county spokesperson Abigail Gardner, two precincts were delayed.

Whitehall’s 3rd precinct opened late because the judge of elections was late, but it was open as of 8:20 a.m. In Pittsburgh 31-03, a Lincoln Place precinct, the poll book was missing because the judge of elections was absent. As of 8:15 voters were able to cast provisional ballots, Gardner said, and the sheriff was in the process of delivering the poll book to restore normal operations.

In the county’s election warehouse, 200 county employees were sworn in at 7 a.m. to begin opening more than 215,000 mail-in ballots that have already been returned by voters. Throughout the day the ballots will be extracted, flattened and scanned, and the county expects to report mail-in ballot results around 8 p.m.