ALLENTOWN (TNS) — Regardless of which presidential candidate you support, it’s exciting for Pennsylvania to be in the national spotlight and to know that every vote here truly will matter.
Voter engagement is at a record level, based on voter registration. More than 9 million people are registered. That hopefully will result in record turnout, too.
It’s been a long time since Pennsylvania was shaping up to play such a big role in the national political scene. For the past few decades, the state was considered to be a lock for Democrats. Prior to Donald Trump’s win in 2016, the last Republican to win was George Bush in 1988.
There was suspense prior to the 2016 election, too, but the national spotlight wasn’t burning on us quite as brightly as it is now. Trump and Hillary Clinton stumped in the state on the eve of the election. Polls predicted it would be close here. Still, experts anticipated Clinton would prevail, based on the state’s history.
When Trump won a nail-biter, by about 44,000 votes, that set the stage for what’s happening here now.
The candidates and their entourages have visited the state often in recent months, plugging for every vote they can get. I don’t suspect there are many undecided voters left, but the visits have given supporters a chance to see them up close.
Donald Trump made several visits this week, including in Hanover Township, Northampton County. He will be back again Saturday with rallies scheduled in Reading, Bucks County and Butler County.
Joe Biden hasn’t been to the Lehigh Valley, but he’s crisscrossed the state with stops in other areas including Bucks and Luzerne counties last weekend. Doug Emhoff, husband of Biden running mate Kamala Harris, was in Allentown on Wednesday. And Harris recently was a guest on the morning show of La Mega, a Spanish-language radio station in the Lehigh Valley.
Biden has brought along celebrities to stump for him, including former President Barack Obama in Philadelphia and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi in Luzerne County. Trump’s children have made stops for him.
{p class=”krtText”}When the candidates haven’t been here, their supporters have held rallies of their own, with car parades and prayer vigils, debate watch parties and voter registration drives.
Voters know Pennsylvania is one of just a handful of battleground states and that it’s being projected as possibly the pivotal state in the race. So people want to vote.
They stood in long lines at satellite voting offices in Philadelphia to register to vote, and to apply for, fill out and return a mail ballot. They are posting photos on Facebook when they receive and return their mail ballot. And those who haven’t received their ballot are getting anxious; they’re reaching out to me and my colleagues as well as county, state and federal officials wondering what to do.
The legal challenges over mail ballots have tried to cast doubt over the outcome of the election, and may continue to do so even after Tuesday. But don’t let that dampen the enthusiasm.
And while there have been moments of contention, with stolen yard signs and childish confrontations, most people are behaving well. True friends, relatives and neighbors don’t let politics blow up their relationships. Most strangers act like adults and respect the fact that others have different opinions.
It’s good for so many people to be engaged in an election and want to have a say in the outcome. It’s good to have so many people volunteer for campaigns, sign up to be poll workers and want to participate in our democracy. Hopefully, they will remain engaged in future elections, too.
That would be the best result of all.
(Columnist Paul Muschick writes for the Morning Call in Allentown.)
