Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026

Picture this. You have been standing in line for 45 minutes. You have read every sign twice, memorized the shoes of the person ahead of you and rehearsed what you will say to the poll worker. Then you check your phone, pull up the polling place locator, and realize you are in the wrong place.

That was me four years ago.

Step one: go to the right place. Go to the polling place that matches your address. Don’t assume the nearest polling place is the right one! Use the PA.gov polling place locator and search by your street address at https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/Pages/PollingPlaceInfo.aspx.

Step two: the backup plan. If you believe you are eligible at the polling place you are standing in (for example, you recently moved) or the poll book does not have your name, you can ask for a provisional ballot, according to the Department of State. A provisional ballot is not counted on the spot. County election officials review it later and decide whether it can be counted, so treat it as the backup plan, not the plan.

The moral of the story: check your polling place before you leave the house, ideally before you have invested 45 minutes and a good parking spot.

Lost your mail ballot? Different problem, same answer: ask for a provisional ballot. The county checks that you did not already vote by mail before it counts yours. If you still have an unused mail ballot, bring it and its envelope to your polling place, hand them over, sign a form and vote on the county’s voting system. And if your voted mail ballot is still on the counter, it has to reach the county by 8 p.m. and cannot be dropped at your polling place.

First time at that polling place? The state says ID is required only if it is your first time voting at a new polling place, and the county says that includes first-time voters. If you have voted at your polling place before, you do not need it.

Access and language. Ask a poll worker about accessible voting options. If you need help speaking or reading English to vote, the state says language support is available.

For other questions, such as mail ballots, drop boxes and ID, check out yesterday’s newsletter or our Election Guide at localunfiltered.com.

Which races you see depends on where you live, so check your sample ballot at monroecountypa.gov/departments/elections/resources/pollingplaces. Here are the governor’s race and the state races from the county’s candidate list (printed Sept. 21), listed alphabetically by last name. We do not tell you how to vote.

Governor and lieutenant governor. Stacy Garrity (R) with Jason Richey; Ken Krawchuk (Libertarian) with John Thomas; Josh Shapiro (D) with Austin Davis.

State Senate, 40th District. Rosemary Brown (R); Brian Wrightson (D).

State House. 115th District: Maureen Madden (D); Rich Szabo (R). 176th District: Thomas Kucer (D); Jack Rader (R). 189th District: Danica Hartenfels (R); Tarah Probst (D).

U.S. House. The county lists the 7th District, so check whether your precinct is in it: Bob Brooks (D); Ryan Mackenzie (R). The 8th District race is in The View from the 8th below.

Let’s start with the major disclaimer. We have not found a report of a security problem at a Monroe County polling place, and we know of no threat to voting in Monroe County.

Who ya gonna call. Pennsylvania’s Department of State runs a voter hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772) for questions or problems at the polls, with interpreters in more than 200 languages. At your polling place, the Judge of Elections is the first person to alert, according to the Department of State. You can also call the county Elections Office at 570-517-3165. Its listed hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, and the county does not list special Election Day hours, so if no one picks up, use the state hotline. If anyone is in danger, call 911.

If a dispute comes up. If a polling place is blocked or voters are being kept out, Pennsylvania’s Courts of Common Pleas are in session from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Election Day, and longer if needed, with judges available in all 67 counties to settle voting disputes, according to City & State PA. Statewide, officials told City & State they are preparing for scenarios such as power outages and cyberattacks, which is preparation, not a report that anything has happened. The same story says U.S. Department of Justice monitors are expected in Luzerne County, next door to us. It does not mention Monroe, and one judge quoted in it said monitors cannot stop an election or interfere with how it is run. If you see intimidation or rule-breaking, tell the Judge of Elections, call 1-877-VOTESPA, or call the Elections Office.

This is general information, not official guidance. If anything here differs from the Department of State or the county Elections Office, go with them.

Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. (R) and Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti (D) are on the 8th District ballot, and it is likely to be tight. Bresnahan won in 2024 by less than two points. The district, which includes all of Lackawanna, Pike and Wayne counties and part of Luzerne County and most of Monroe County, voted for Donald Trump by about eight points that year. Three October polls have Cognetti ahead by 3 to 5 points, but the leads sit inside or near the polls’ margins of error. The Cook Political Report moved the race from Toss Up to Lean Democratic on Oct. 30. Cook’s summary says Bresnahan’s stock trades have dogged him all cycle and given Democrats a line of attack, in a district it calls very much in play. A rating is one analyst’s call, not a result.

The Debate. The two candidates met Oct. 29 in the district’s only scheduled debate, an hour hosted by WVIA. On Iran, Bresnahan said he does not support troops on the ground and that the war needs to end, but he warned against a rushed withdrawal. Cognetti called for diplomacy and said the public has not been told why the country went to war. On data centers, Cognetti said that if projects go through, there should be no nondisclosure agreements and the community must be able to say no. Bresnahan said his bill would give the final say to local communities. Cognetti said the bill has not left committee, and Bresnahan said he is working on co-sponsors. They also took questions on Social Security, housing, immigration, health care, the national debt, Ukraine, gun violence and presidential pardons. If you are doing last-minute research, you can find the whole debate on YouTube. Here’s a hint: if you go to gemini.google.com you can paste in the link and ask it to summarize it for you or even give you a full transcript.

Why it reaches past our corner. Pennsylvania has four closely watched U.S. House races this year, more than any other state, and all four seats are held by Republicans. The House is narrowly divided, so a handful of seats could decide which party controls it. There is no U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania this year.

Watching tonight. Monroe County’s results page, agencies2.monroecountypa.gov/ElectionResults, shows Monroe’s numbers only. Other counties report the rest of the 8th, so there will be no district total until they do.

State utility judges hold a prehearing conference today at 10 a.m. by phone or video on the Consumer Advocate’s complaint against PPL Electric Utilities. The complaint alleges that PPL plans to recover $157M, or 88 percent, of the $178M in grid upgrades for one data center campus from existing ratepayers, and $22M, or 12 percent, from the data center. The complaint does not say how that would show up on bills or by how much. It does not name the customer or the county, so we cannot say whether it is near us. These are allegations. PPL’s answer was due Monday and was not on the docket as of Monday evening (C-2026-3065756).

Borough Council meets at 7 p.m. at 24 Analomink St. A public hearing is advertised for 7:15 p.m. on Ordinance No. 1426, which amends Chapter 82, Flood Damage Prevention, to allow public utility work and maintenance of existing flood control structures in the floodplain. The Planning Commission recommended it unanimously. Council also reconsiders the 2027 Stroud Area Regional Police budget, which it approved Oct. 20, then voted Oct. 26 to rescind its approval because Stroudsburg and Stroud Township appear to disagree on funding. The agenda proposes a split of Stroud Township 47.29 percent, East Stroudsburg 31.09 and Stroudsburg 21.62, instead of the formula split of 46.37, 30.85 and 22.78, if both agree to use the formula for 2028.

Not on tonight’s agenda, but minutes posted with it show the Council voted unanimously Oct. 20 to have its Professional Committee draft one-way changes for both streets and work with the developer of 25 South Courtland Street. The 4 feet needed to widen the road would come from that property, per the Oct. 26 minutes.

More detail on these items is at localunfiltered.com, and the full meeting calendar is at localunfiltered.com/monroe/meetings.