I just voted in my first Pennsylvania primary and I must say I was disappointed. I moved here from Georgia and expected voting would be about the same. Maybe even better, after all this is the state where both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were written.

There is a buffer zone around polling places. It is usually a fairly significant distance, around 100 feet is typical but it does vary from state to state. In Georgia I think it is 150 feet. In Pennsylvania, it is 10 feet. So as you walk to the polling place you do see a rather large number of political signs until just before you get to the front door. This is true in both primary and general elections. Seems rather strange to me but it is not really a problem after all those are the rules here.

But today (my first primary here) I was really surprised. As I walked into the polling building, there were 2 tables. I assumed part of the voting process. But I was wrong, they were staffed by the local parties ( Republicans and Democrats) and I actually was given a sample ballot with choices marked. I am not sure if the marked choices were the choices of the local committee or just meant to be an example of how you select your choices.

After I had signed in at one of those tables and no one seemed interested in giving me a real ballot I asked where the voting was and was told it was in the next room. I don’t know if this was actually a violation. I suspect there may be a loophole as the political tables were at least 10 feet from the place where you actually vote but they were in the same building. In fact they were inside the front door to the building and you had to walk by them in order to vote.