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Election 2020: A Guide to Voting in Pennsylvania
L OCA L
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
ELECTION DAY is less than
a month away, and voting is
going to look a little different
this year.
No matter who you’re voting
for, it’s important to make a
plan to ensure that your voice
is heard.
To learn more about how
to vote safely and securely
in Pennsylvania, two Jewish
members of Committee of
Seventy, a nonpartisan organi-
zation that advocates for better
government in Philadelphia
and Pennsylvania, explained
the various options.
“What we try to do at the
Committee of Seventy is to
provide simple basic information
through our website, seventy.org,
where we have a voter guide,”
board member Adam Laver said.
The site features a build-your-
own-ballot tool where users can
review candidates and ballot
questions. Other resources are
outlined below.
Application to register by mail.
You can also register in-person
at your county voter registration
office. If you are unsure whether
you have already regis-
tered to vote, check your
registration and polling place
at pavoterservices.pa.gov/
Pages/voterregistrationstatus. aspx. You can also contact your
County Board of Elections or
call 1-877-VOTESPA.
Know Your Options
The pandemic has made
congregating in large groups
risky, but in-person voting is still
an option. Be prepared to wear a
mask and maintain at least 6 feet
of distance from others when
possible. Seventy board member
Howard Davis said most people
will return to their pre-pan-
demic polling places, but advises
people to double check in case a
location has changed.
You may request a mail-in
ballot online, by mail or in
person at your county election
office. You can request an
absentee ballot if you will be
outside the municipality where
Register to Vote
you live when it is time to vote. If
Visit votespa.com to register you live in Philadelphia and are
to vote online or download the worried that your ballot will not
Pennsylvania Voter Registration arrive in time through the mail,
you can fill it out completely
and deposit it in one of the city’s
ballot drop boxes. If you live in
Pennsylvania, you can deliver it
to your county election office by
8 p.m. on Nov. 3.
Laver said that if you receive
your mail-in ballot but decide
you would prefer to vote in
person, you can bring your ballot
with you to your polling place
and forfeit it in order to cast
your vote there. It is important
to bring all parts of the ballot,
including the two envelopes.
If your mail-in ballot
doesn’t arrive, you can go to
your polling place and request
a provisional ballot.
If you are already registered
to vote, you can vote early by
going to your county election
office in person and submit-
ting a mail-in or absentee ballot
application. The county will
process your application while
you wait. If the office deter-
mines you are eligible, it will
give you your ballot, which you
can then mark and return there.
As of press time, the
Philadelphia City Commissioners
have opened seven satellite
election offices in the city where
you can vote early by either
dropping off your mail-in ballot
or applying for one and filling it
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A sign near City Hall encourages civic participation. Photo by Sophie Panzer
out when you visit. More locations
are expected to be announced as
Election Day gets closer. To find
the satellite election office closest
to you, visit philadelphiavotes.com
or call 215-686-3469.
Follow Instructions
While each of the options listed
above is a safe and secure way to
cast your ballot, Laver and Davis
emphasized that it’s important
to follow instructions carefully.
Some mistakes can result in your
ballot being rejected.
First, pay attention to regis-
tration and voting deadlines:
The following is not a compre-
hensive list.
The last day to register
to vote in the 2020 General
Election is Oct. 19.
Applications for mail-in or
absentee ballots must be received
by your county election office
by 5 p.m. on Oct. 27 (Seventy
recommends sending them as
soon as possible.)
Mail-in ballots must be
postmarked by Nov. 3 and
received by the county election
office by 5 p.m. Nov. 6.
If you are voting by mail-in
ballot, including early voting,
beware the naked ballot.
Pennsylvania ballots come with
two envelopes, a larger mailing
envelope and a smaller secrecy
envelope. Ballots must be sealed
in the secrecy envelope before
they are sealed in the larger
mailing envelope, or they will
not be counted. You must also
sign and date the voter decla-
ration on the mailing envelope.
Election Results
Seventy board member
Howard Davis said it is
important for voters to be aware
that the increased amount of
mail-in ballots may result in a
longer counting process.
“We are really stressing
at the Committee of Seventy
that this is Election Week. It’s
not Election Day the way you
normally think of it,” he said.
That doesn’t mean you can
cast a ballot after Election
Day, but it does mean patience
is key.
“It’s quite possible, depending
upon how close it is, that it will
take a while for us to have the
result. That doesn’t mean that
there’s fraud. It means that it
is taking a while to count the
ballots that are valid ballots
according to Pennsylvania law,”
he explained.
He added that it is important
to have faith in the election
system and not to fear for the
validity of the process if it takes
longer than usual to get results.
For More Information
If you have more questions
about how to vote this year,
visit votespa.com, an official
Pennsylvania government
website. You can also call your
local county election office or
1-877-VOTESPA. If you live
in Philadelphia, call the voter
hotline at 267-405-3401. l
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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NEWSBRIEFS Gal Gadot Is Third Highest-Paid Actress in 2020
ISRAELI ACTRESS Gal Gadot, who is best known for her role
as the title character in “Wonder Woman,” is 2020’s third-highest
paid actress, according to Forbes, JTA reported.
She will earn $31.5 million in 2020, including $20 million
for “Red Notice,” which also stars Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne
Johnson. The biggest feature film ever made by Netflix is set to
be released next year.
Gadot also stars in the sequel “Wonder Woman 1984,” whose
release date has been pushed back four times because of the
pandemic. It is now set for a Dec. 25 release.
Sofia Vergara of “Modern Family” placed first with $43
million, and Angelina Jolie was second with $35 million.
Gadot first appeared on the Forbes highest-paid actresses list
in 2018, when she was 10th with $10 million in earnings.
Jewish actress Scarlett Johansson ranked first on the 2019 list
with $56 million in earnings.
NYC to Shut Down 9 Neighborhoods Due to COVID-19 Spike
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Oct. 4 that the
city will reimpose a COVID-19 lockdown in several neighbor-
hoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations, JTA reported.
The lockdown will last two to four weeks in parts of Far
Rockaway, Queens and Kew Gardens in Queens; and parts
of Borough Park, Midwood, Gravesend, Bensonhurst and
Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, The New York Times reported. At
least 3% of those tested there have tested positive for COVID-19
in recent days.
The lockdown will include the closing of schools and nones-
sential businesses; the city had just reopened all public schools
the previous week.
Anti-Semitic Chants Added to Dutch Soccer Match
Anti-Semitic chants were added to the soundtrack of a live Dutch
soccer game that aired Oct. 4 on Fox Sports Netherlands, JTA
reported. In a match between the Amsterdam team Ajax and a rival
from the city of Groningen, the network added a recording from
a past game that featured the chant “Whoever doesn’t jump is a
Jew.” Because of the pandemic prompting games to be played in
empty stadiums, many TV stations are adding audience sounds
to broadcasts.
Supporters of rival teams sing the chant to taunt the players
on Ajax, which many Dutchmen associated with Jews because of
Amsterdam’s rich Jewish history.
“Due to human error during the match, during the first
halftime a certain chant was heard that should not have been
played. The fragment was removed,” FOX News Netherlands
wrote on Twitter.
Jewish Researcher Shares Nobel Prize in Medicine
The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded on Oct. 5 to three scien-
tists who identified the hepatitis C virus, including Harvey Alter
of the National Institute of Health, who is Jewish, JTA reported.
Alter, 85, was born in New York and attended medical school
at the University of Rochester. He worked previously with Nobel
Prize-winning scientist Baruch Blumberg, who identified the
hepatitis B virus.
Alter shared the award with Michael Houghton of the
University of Alberta and Charles Rice of Rockefeller
University. l
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