Your Norristown Patch Election Guide – How to Vote

It’s election time, and Norristown Patch is here with a primer on how to survive it. There are quite a few things to know, and we thought it would be a good idea to give everyone a little refresher course on the basics. We'll also have a rundown on who’s in the race, what they’re running for, and why you should care. But let’s start slow.

Make sure you're registered

Not sure if you’re registered or can’t remember what party you registered with? No problem. Follow this link on the Board of Elections website, and put in your information. It’ll tell you what party you registered with, what voting district you’re in and where your polling place is.

And that leads us to the next important piece of information.

Where do I vote?

Your polling place (the place you actually do the voting) depends on where you live. There will be 12 polling locations set up in Norristown tomorrow, one for each of the three districts in each of the four wards. You can find that location here on the Board of Elections website, or you can consult the map in our PDF section.

Here’s a list of the polling places, but be sure to check the map or the Board of Elections link before you head out. The polling place closest to you may not actually be the place you vote.

• District 1-1: Montgomery County Warehouse, 1006 W. Washington St. @ Buttonwood Street
• District 1-2: , 1315 W. Marshall St. @ Selma Street
• District 1-3: , 1315 W. Marshall St. @ Selma Street
• District 2-1: , 506 Haws Ave.
• District 2-2: , G36 George St. @ Airy Street
• District 2-3: , 714 DeKalb St. @ Chestnut Street
• District 3-1: , 1601 Markley St. @ Coolidge Boulevard
• District 3-2: , 1001 Powell St. @ Swede Street
• District 3-3: , 1601 Markley St. @ Coolidge Boulevard
• District 4-1: Laborers Union Local 135, 740 Sandy St. (Behind Tremont Cemetery.)
• District 4-2: , 1430 DeKalb St. @ East Fornance Street
• District 4-3: , Arch and Summit streets

Polls will be open at 7 a.m. and stay open until 8 p.m. If there’s a long line at the end of the day, and you’re worried your polling place will close before you get a chance to vote, have no fear. Polling places are required to stay open and allow anyone who was in line by 8 p.m. to vote.

According to the folks at the Board of Elections, the busiest time for polls is before and after work and at lunchtime. If you go at these times, you may have some lines to contend with. If you’re able, try to go between 9 am and noon or between 2 and 5pm. There are no guarantees, but these are typically the least busy times at the polls.

So how do I vote?

Now comes the easy part. Once you’ve figured out what party you’re registered with and found your polling location, show up and sign in.

If you’ve never voted before or are newly registered with a party, you’ll have to bring photo ID so the poll workers will know you’re you. If you’re a regular voter and this is old hat, workers will just compare your signature with the one they have on file from your voter registration card to confirm. Then they’ll lead you into the booth where you’ll come face-to-face with your ballot. You can see your ballot in our PDF section. Just find the one labeled with your voting district and take a look.

The county uses the Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machine with a full-faced ballot display, so there’s no scrolling through ballot pages. To vote for a candidate, you just press a square next to that candidate’s name. Write-in votes are done by using a keyboard below the ballot display. You get to view your entire selection before casting your vote.

The voting booth is wheelchair accessible and offers audio help for visually impaired voters.

You can see a picture of the machine and read the step-by-step instructions for using the voting booth or see an instructional video on how to use the machines on the Montgomery County Voter Services website.

That’s pretty much everything you need to know about the nuts and bolts of voting today. We'll have a rundown of the candidates and the offices their running for as well. Check our site for that post.

Norristown Patch will be visiting polling locations throughout the day to check in with voters and poll workers about how things are going. We’ll also be reporting the outcomes of races as they come in and checking in with candidates for their reactions. You can get real-time updates from us by liking us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. As soon as we know something, you will too.

If you see a problem on voting day, give us a call at 610-308-9881 or email editor James Myers at james.myers@patch.com, and we’ll be on the scene to make sure the public at large hears about it.