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Politics & Government

Predictions of Low Voter Turnout Come True

Poll workers cite Santorum withdrawal and too many uncontested races for voter apathy.

Despite improving weather and a Republican Presidential Primary, voter turnout was reported light throughout Western Pennsylvania as the polls closed on this primary election.

Allegheny County Elections Manager Mark Wolosik predicted 25-percent of registered Republicans and Democrats would cast ballots in their respective primaries. 

As of 5 p.m., only 36 people had voted at the Verona Presbyterian Church in Verona; about 90 had voted at the in Oakmont by 5:15.

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, the Republican nominee for state representative in the 25th Legislative District, said the polls in Plum were "very quiet" while he was out.

Poll workers throughout the region were saying the same thing.

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"Today was really bad," said election worker Virginia Foytik, who was manning a table at the polling location at the West View Fire Department on Perry Highway late afternoon Tuesday. "We could have taken a nap in between voters."  

Poll workers at the station said they were averaging about 10 an hour. As of about 5:30 p.m., they had 109 voters out of about 500 registered.  

Outside North Hills Junior High School, Beth Kuchma had just voted, with her 9-year-old daughter, Sarah Grace, in tow. She said she was raised in a family that believed in voting, and that it was important to her in particular because women have not always had the right to vote.

Kuchma has voted in every election, primaries included. Still, she said she understood the low voter turnout. 

"It's hard to motivate people to vote in a primary," she said.  

Frank Magnotta, judge of elections at McCormick Elementary in Moon Township, agreed.

"It's not like a general election," Magnotta said. "It's been very slow all morning." 

Voters in  continued to stream in and out of . But the turnout as of early afternoon wasn’t exactly high for the statewide Republican presidential primary.

“It’s kind of slow,” said Helene Zacharias, judge of elections in Ward II. 

Debbie Ullrich, a volunteer at  polling place in Upper St. Clair echoed those sentiments.

"Very disappointing," she said. "We thought it'd be slow, but not this slow. Especially on the Republican side."

The April 24 primary has served as a trial run for a change that will go into effect with the November general election, when voters will be asked to show photo identification before casting a vote. 

Verona poll workers didn't ask voters to show ID, but did hand them fliers explaining the change in November. One voter joked with poll workers and said he brought every form of identification he has—including a birth certificate and military ID—to ensure he'd be able to cast his vote.

Barbara Kramer, a precinct judge at the , said there weren’t any problems Tuesday morning, and that everyone turned over a photo ID when asked. 

But the number of people who came out to vote Tuesday morning was even less than the number who came out last November, when Kramer said voter turnout has been decreasing over the years.

The  in the northern part of that municipality seemed like a ghost town at times with no campaign signs planted in the ground there at around 3:45 p.m. And seats lined up to control crowd flow were empty.

"Voter apathy" was the way that one poll worker at the municipal complex described the scene, saying that he doesn't expect traffic to pick up any more today, even after most voters finish their workdays.

Another worker at the complex attributed the low voter turnout to a lack of competition for many local races, as well as the national race for the U.S. presidency. He said that former Pennsylvania Sen.  dropping out of the contest for the Republican Party's presidential nomination is hurting traffic at polling places throughout the state. 

The worker, who reported less than 10 percent of voter turnout for his precinct, does expect interest to be up in November when Republican Mitt Romney is expected to face Democratic PresidentBarack Obama in a general election. 

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