In primary, top is the ticket for voters

While Pennsylvanians were choosing nominees in contested and costly races for the U.S. Senate and House, state attorney general, and the legislature, the often rambunctious and acrimonious presidential contests clearly were the big draw for voters in Tuesday's primary.

Final figures were not available, but the consensus was that turnout was heavier than usual for a primary election, and it was quite brisk at some locations.

"I tell you, man, it's like the opening of Batman v Superman," said Peter Jacobus. He was manning the two voting machines at the Bala Gymnasium in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, where a 40-voter line formed a slow-moving loop.

At St. Stanislaus, a Catholic church in Queen Village, about 200 had voted by 11 a.m., quadruple the usual number, according to a poll worker.

Aside from the perennial nuisance complaints that are as much a part of election tradition as bake sales, "nothing sinister nor out of bounds" was reported in the way of glitches, said David Thornburgh, executive director of the watchdog agency the Committee of Seventy. His comments were echoed by election officials in Philadelphia's neighboring counties.

But one polling place did have something of an adventure - resolved with the help of a locksmith's drill.

For most of the day, the voting weather was ideal, although some thunderstorms crossed the Philadelphia region, the state's largest population center, late in the day.

Some experts said a record turnout was possible among Republicans, who were choosing among presidential candidates Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Gov. John Kasich.

"I think Donald Trump is crazy, I really do," said Mickey Galiano, 67, a retired maintenance worker voting at the Bristol Borough Area Active Adult Center in Bucks County.

"But maybe what we need is a madman. This is a crazy government."

In a primarily African American precinct in West Philadelphia, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was drawing widespread support, as she has among black voters throughout the campaign.

"It will be amazing if she makes history as the first woman president," said Elishia Peterson, 28, an assistant teacher. She was in a rush to get to her classroom at Mastery Charter School Harrity Elementary, across from the polling place at 56th and Christian Streets.

Mike Brown, 41, a carpenter who worries about corporate and government control, was an exception, said he saw Sen. Bernie Sanders as an agent of change.

"I like his track record on civil rights issues, the situation dealing with mass incarceration of black, brown, red, and yellow people. Free education, universal health care - I don't think these things are overpromising. I feel the Bern."

Democrat Joe Sestak, a former congressman, lost to Katie McGinty, Gov. Rendell's former chief of staff, for the right to oppose incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

Rep. Chaka Fattah, the 11-term Philadelphia congressman, lost in the fight of his career, confronting challenges from State Rep. Dwight Evans, who won, and two others. In Bucks County and a piece of Montgomery County, Republican Brian Fitzpatrick won the race to try to succeed his brother, retiring Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, in a race that has drawn national attention in a district almost evenly divided between the two parties.

Both parties also were picking nominees in the race to succeed embattled Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane.

But on Tuesday, voters clearly were focused on the top of the ticket on a primary day when Pennsylvania offered the biggest harvest of delegates - 71 for Republicans and 189 for Democrats.

By midafternoon, about 300 had shown up at Knowlton Mansion in Fox Chase, or about 20 percent of the registered voters, said Judge of Elections Bob Stine. But, Stine said, some GOP voters had complained that former candidates Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush remained on the ballot. "A couple people were concerned the candidate they were voting for will have votes taken from them," he said. Republicans interviewed were split among Cruz, Kasich, and Trump.

Bud McCarville, 66, said he supported Cruz because "he's more attuned to constitutional issues. He doesn't want to wreck the Constitution like Obama has." The retired manager at a manufacturing company said his health-insurance premiums had gone up 300 percent as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

Gerry Plewes, 88, a retired salesman, said a vote for Kasich felt like a vote for a lost cause, but he supported him anyway. "He makes the most sense. I wanted some clarity, and instead I got a lot of guys shouting and saying they're going to build a wall or whatever?"

Democrats were not expected to match the record turnout numbers posted in the 2008 primary election between Clinton and Barack Obama, who would go on to become president. But both Clinton and Sanders were drawing enthusiastic supporters.

"She's truthful. I think she can hold her own against anyone. Especially being married to Bill," Kwame Zizwe, 67, a Democrat, said with a laugh at the South Philadelphia High School polling place. "And I mean that in a respectful way."

Maria Chambers, 21, a Temple University fine-arts student, favored Sanders, liking his stances on health care and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

"I don't think everything he says is going to happen," she said. "I think his intentions are good."

Katherine Kurtz, 74, voting in Narberth, said she had suppored Sanders for months but had second thoughts after the last debate.

"I felt like he showed a kind of nasty side to him. I love his ideas and I want him to keep moving the party to the left. But I want him to stop being nasty."

Tamaha Davis, 38, a city sanitation worker from West Philadelphia, voted for Clinton. "I was thinking of Bernie, but I figured, we got a black president, so let us get a woman president. Let's cross all the boundaries. Let's see something different," Davis said. He said he liked how Clinton stuck by President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"If you realize it or not, no matter what we do in life, it's all about a woman. Your husband might run your house, but you give him permission to do so. Women already run life, so why not let her?"

Under Pennsylvania's system, voters cast ballots in the so-called beauty contest and for individual delegates. On the Democratic side, voters had to choose a mix of men and women.

The system evidently was causing some delays at voting machines, and Thornburgh said he would not be surprised if some people gave up on trying to vote for individual delegates.

Thornburgh noted that Pennsylvanians might be a bit rusty when it comes to casting meaningful votes in a presidential primary.

Pennsylvania Republicans had not participated in a seriously contested presidential primary in 40 years, because by the time Pennsylvania voted the candidate had been all but chosen.

For a while, Tuesday morning voters attempting to cast ballots at an East Falls apartment building confronted bigger problems than complicated ballots.

According to Al Schmidt, vice chairman of the Philadelphia city commissioners, the building's manager had locked the voting machines in a storage room and could not find a key. Schmidt said he showed up around 9 a.m. with a hammer, intending to smash the glass door. A locksmith later appeared to drill the door's lock, freeing the machines before 10 a.m.

As for the voters who showed up before then, they were given the option of coming back or voting on emergency provisional paper ballots.

Contributing to this article were staff writers Chris Brennan, Rita Giordano, William K. Marimow, Michael Matza, Tricia L. Nadolny, Julia Terruso, and Jane M. Von Bergen.