Montco promises speedier election results

The polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day in Pennsylvania. Invariably somebody calls The Mercury newsroom at 8:05 p.m. asking who won a certain race. As someone who often works well past midnight on election nights, I wish we could get results that early.

And with a record turnout expected April 22 in the Pennsylvania primary, we may be seeing the sun rise on April 23 before getting results results.

Officials in one Pennsylvania county are promising to get results much earlier.

Reporter Margaret Gibbons says Montgomery County will try much harder this year to count the votes in a timely fashion.

County Voter Services Director Joseph R. Passarella told Gibbons that additional county security officers will be used on election night to transport polling place results to Norristown for processing. This will enable residents to at least have a feel for how most of the contests are going at a reasonable hour, according to Passarella.

The county promised to do a better job of release results long before the political eyes of the nation were focused on the April 22 Pennsylvania primary.

Shortly after winning election last Novemember, Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce L. Castor said he wanted elections officials to come up with a plan to count votes faster.

From Gibbons' story:

By midnight last Election Night, the county had posted results from about 82 percent of the polls. About 90 percent of the poll results were posted by about 12:15 a.m., with the final results coming after 12:30 a.m. And, between 12:15 a.m. and the final posting, the winners of four county row offices had changed.

Castor complained it was unfair to the candidates, their supporters who had been working all day and the public, to make them wait until 1 a.m. the following day for the final "unofficial" results.

Read Gibbons' full story, "County has need for speed"