The city makes up the largest contingent of voters in a closely watched Senate race that will have national implications.
Election Day: Get your live 2022 midterm election results here
"We intend to run a good election every year, and so far, today has been going really well," said City Commissioner Seth Bluestein.
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In a special meeting Tuesday morning, Philadelphia City Commissioners voted 2-1 to reinstate the "poll book reconciliation process," a time-consuming process that catches double voting in person and in mail-in ballots. Initially, they didn't think the process was necessary.
"We're the only county out of 67 counties that has been doing it," said Lisa Deeley, City Commissioner Chair. "So we have done our due diligence to ensure that our vote is accurate. Voters of Philadelphia are not voting twice. We haven't had any double votes in the last three elections, so we felt pretty confident it was a good time to stop."
However, Republicans filed a lawsuit, requesting the city use the process. A judge sided with the Commissioners, but the Commissioners decided to change course and undergo the process anyways.
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"Ultimately, the way the opinion was written by the Court of Common Pleas judge, we felt that in order to make sure there's no disinformation spreading or accusations of fraud in Philadelphia's votes, which there would not be in this case. We reimplemented the procedure," said Bluestein.
The vast majority of ballots are expected to be counted by the end of election night, with tens of thousands expected to be counted in the coming days.