PITTSBURGH -- Allegations of campaign shenanigans surfaced while people were trying to vote early Tuesday in Pittsburgh's Hill District, where a bitter city council race has been going on for months.
Campaigning is supposed to stop 10 feet from a polling place, but electioneering reportedly continued into the Hill House and at other locations throughout District 6, according to some voters' complaints.
Allegheny County Elections Manager Mark Wolosik told Team 4’s Jim Parsons that he spoke to one voter who experienced electioneering at the polls on Tuesday.
“He made a complaint to me that said one of the precinct officials at his polling place when he went in asked him if he needed any instructions on how to cast a write-in vote for Tonya Payne. You cannot electioneer inside a polling place,” said Wolosik.
Payne, the incumbent councilwoman in District 6, has been waging a write-in campaign against Robert Daniel Lavelle, who defeated her in the Democratic primary earlier this year.
By noon, a county judge in Common Pleas Court had issued an order forbidding electioneering in District 6 of the city council.
Channel 4 Action News producer Tom West said he tried to vote Tuesday morning in the Hill, but was told by campaign workers outside a school auditorium on Miller Street that he couldn't.
“They were like, ‘Well, the voting booths are down,’ and I'm like, ‘What do you mean the machines are down?’ They're like, ‘Well, there was a problem with the machines and they're down right now. We're waiting for someone to come and fix it,’” said West.
Wolosik said there was no problem with the voting machines.
“The people standing outside of the polling place are not in charge of the polling place. They should verify it for themselves,” said Wolosik. “You should never walk away and do that. You have a right to go inside the polling place and verify that for yourself.”
Whether it’s via an emergency ballot or provisional ballot, everyone has a right to vote and should not be turned away.
“I wish I would have gone in, just to make sure and just been like, ‘Is there a problem here? Should I come back?’ What steps should I take? What happens if I can't make it back after work?” said West.
Voters who experience electioneering at the polls also have the option to seek out the state constable who has been assigned to their polling place.
"One of their duties is to preserve order. They should make the complaint known to the judge of elections, anyways," Wolosik said. "And if in the case that none of that works, then the election court is in continuance session all day."
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