PollWatch: In North Phila. 'It's been calm all day'

The threat of widespread vigilante poll watchers in Philadelphia, it seems, may have been oversold. At least in North Philadelphia.

Election workers across several wards there reported no major voting issues through mid-afternoon Tuesday, instead staying they were thrilled to be handling steady streams of eager voters.

"Been great," said Cynthia McKenney-Pittman, judge of elections in Ward 11-Division 1, on the 1700 block of Lehigh Avenue. "We've been calm all day."

Darla Beasley, a committeeperson in Ward 29-Division 9, on the 2600 block of Jefferson Street, said about half of the division's expected 260 voters had turned out by 3 pm — and that none had caused or run into issues before getting into the ballot box.

"They've been behaving themselves," she said with a chuckle, in between greeting new voters and directing others toward their post-ballot stickers inside the gymnasium of the Camelot Academy school.

In Fairhill, outside the polling place for Ward 37-Division 5 on N. 11th Street, only a few signs for Hillary Clinton and Congressional candidate Dwight Evans suggested that votes were being cast inside. Kids were playing basketball at a park across the street and residents hung out on benches nearby.

Lawrence Roberts, 67, drove to the polling place to vote, and said he wished there hadn't been any suggestion of voter intimidation in the first place. He was a Clinton supporter, but hoped whatever the result, the country could move beyond what he called a "very nasty" campaign.

"We need to unite," he said, "instead of divide."