UPDATES: Special elections will determine who fills former state House seats of Gainey, Wheatley

If you live in parts of Pittsburgh or Wilkinsburg, you had a special election Tuesday.

It was for the state House seats that Mayor Ed Gainey and his Chief of Staff Jake Wheatley vacated when they started working for the City of Pittsburgh.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and closed at 8 p.m.

UPDATE 8:58 p.m.

Allegheny County Director of Communications Amie Downs said they are not planning on providing any more updates this evening but results will be continued to be updated until all precincts have returned materials.

Downs said in-person turnout was very low with many precinct voters in the single digits.

The Return Board will be sworn in at 9 a.m. on Friday morning.

UPDATE 8:40 p.m.

Allegheny County Director of Communications Amie Downs said 65 additional mail-in and absentee ballots have been delivered to the warehouse from ballot return at the County Office Building. When completed, the tallies will be added to the current count.

UPDATE 8:10 p.m.

Allegheny County Director of Communications Amie Downs said all main-in and absentee ballots that had been received until 7 p.m. have been opened and scanned.

For those keeping track at home:

• 8,538 mail-in or absentee ballots were sent out
• 4,446 ballots were returned through 7 PM
• 37 ballots were “naked” – i.e. meaning that the secrecy envelope was not used and the ballots not counted
• 34 declaration envelopes were returned with a missing date, signature or both and were not counted
• 1 secrecy envelope was empty
• 1 secrecy envelope was marked, identifying the voter, and so was not counted

Downs said they expect the results from in-person voting will begin coming in between 8:30 and 9 p.m.

UPDATE 11:50 a.m.

Allegheny County Director of Communications Amie Downs said there were only two issues Tuesday morning that delayed openings.

The first incident was at Kingsley Association. Downs said poll workers weren’t let into the building until late.

The second was at Mt. Ararat where polls were set up on the wrong floor and did not have handicapped access. This caused a slight delay.

Once moved to the correct floor, polls were operating by 7:20 am.

Downs said all polling places were up and running by 7:45 a.m.

Original story:

If you live in parts of Pittsburgh or Wilkinsburg, you have a special election today.

It’s for the state House seats that Mayor Ed Gainey and his Chief of Staff Jake Wheatley vacated when they started working for the City of Pittsburgh.

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, and will close at 8 p.m.

If you want to do a mail-in ballot, you have to return it by 8 p.m. as well.

The special elections will determine who finishes out the terms in two districts for the rest of the year.

The 19th Legislative District has 86 precincts. All are within the City of Pittsburgh. There are about 43,000 registered voters in that district.

The 24th Legislative District has 90 precincts, with 73 in Pittsburgh, and 17 precincts in Wilkinsburg. There are about 50,000 registered voters in the district.

Because of the special election, 15 Pittsburgh public schools will be polling places and moved to virtual learning.

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