Local counties see solid turnout at polls

Local officials report few problems with Tuesday election

LEWISTOWN – More than half of registered voters cast ballots in Mifflin and Juniata counties Tuesday, and both election directors said they were pleased with turnout and reported few problems.

Juniata County reported turnout of 58.59%, while Mifflin County Elections Director Paula Hoffman put her county's turnout at 53%. Juniata Elections Director Eva Weyrich and Hoffman reported smooth operations, apart from incorrect times printed on some voter receipts in Mifflin County.

Hoffman said that problem didn't affect the counting of ballots. Both counties face a Nov. 23 deadline to certify their election results.

The counties' unofficial election-night reports listed a combined 22,697 ballots cast. Mifflin County accounted for 14,439 ballots, including 12,017 cast on Election Day and 2,422 mail ballots.

Juniata County reported 8,258 ballots cast among 14,095 registered voters. That included 7,160 Election Day ballots and 1,098 mail ballots. Juniata's turnout was about 5.6 percentage points higher than Mifflin's reported rate.

Both counties' election-night ballot totals were below their official totals from the 2022 midterm election. Mifflin County reported 16,972 ballots cast in 2022, compared with 14,439 Tuesday, a difference of 2,533.

Juniata County recorded 9,861 ballots and turnout of 70.30% in 2022. This year's reported turnout was 11.71 percentage points lower, with 1,603 fewer ballots cast. The county had 14,027 registered voters in 2022, compared with 14,095 this year.

Those comparisons use official 2022 results and unofficial election-night figures for 2026. Both elections were midterms.

At Thursday's Mifflin County commissioners meeting, Hoffman described the turnout as impressive and pointed to the number of voters who returned mail ballots. She reported a 90% mail-ballot return rate, the highest she recalled during her time with the county.

That figure measures the return of mail ballots, separate from the county's overall voter turnout. The 53% figure represents participation among registered voters.

Hoffman credited the people who helped her office process the ballots. She said an observer arrived at 12:30 p.m. to watch the canvassing of mail ballots, but workers had completed processing the ballots then available.

"I did show her the process," Hoffman said. "She was very impressed." Ballots that arrived later, up to the 8 p.m. Election Day deadline, still had to be processed.

She also addressed the incorrect receipt times, explaining that a program update hadn't been applied to every tablet. The problem involved the time shown on the slip issued when a voter received a ballot.

"The time on your receipt does not get recorded anywhere," Hoffman said. She explained that the receipt and the ballot-counting process serve different purposes.

"If you put a ballot through the DS-200 at the polls, your vote was recorded," Hoffman said, referring to the ballot scanners used at polling places.

Juniata County's election-night summary listed all 18 Election Day precincts as reporting.

Mifflin County's report listed all 26 Election Day precincts as reporting. Its summary was generated at 9:28 p.m. Tuesday, while Juniata County's was generated at 10:31 p.m.

Those timestamps identify when the reports were produced. They don't establish when either county completed every part of its count, and both documents are labeled unofficial results.

Juniata County has scheduled its public meeting to compute and canvass election returns for 9 a.m. Friday at the voter registration office in the county courthouse in Mifflintown, according to the county's posted notice.

Pennsylvania's calendar allows qualifying military and overseas ballots to arrive through Nov. 10 if they were submitted for delivery by 11:59 p.m. Nov. 2. That deadline falls a week after Election Day and before the deadline for certification.

Hoffman told commissioners her office was completing computations for the state and preparing required reports. "There are quite a few reports that have to go into the state," she said.

Both counties must certify their official returns by Nov. 23.