Huge lines to vote in Pennsylvania as elections open in crucial state

Voters in Pennsylvania went to the polls in droves as polls opened in one of the most hotly contested states in the election.

Videos posted on social media show voters lining the streets of Pennsylvania even before polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

In a video, between 80 and 100 people can be seen lining up at a polling station in Jenkins Township, Luzerne County. In another video, voters can be seen lining the halls of the University of Pennsylvania before the polls open.

Meanwhile, voters in York County gathered at 5:55 a.m., an hour and five minutes before polls opened, according to a social media user. In York County, 143,260 people voted Republican in 2020, compared to 126,933 in 2016.

Another post showed that around 100 voters were in line in Erie County as of 7 a.m.

With 19 Electoral College votes, Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state for victory, having voted for the winning candidate in 48 of the last 59 elections.

The polls in Pennsylvania are currently very close. Poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight shows Kamala Harris with a 0.2-point lead, while forecaster Nate Silver's tracker shows Donald Trump with a 0.1-point lead.

The individual polls are evenly divided on who will win the state, with each poll showing the two candidates within the margins of error and within three points of each other.

The latest AtlasIntel poll, conducted between November 3 and 4, showed Trump at 50 percent a point ahead of Harris at 49 percent. Meanwhile, Harris was ahead by two points in Survation's Nov. 1-4 poll, while Harris was ahead by just one point in Research Co.'s Nov. 2-3 poll.

However, the latest Echelon Insights poll, conducted between Oct. 27 and Oct. 30 among 600 registered voters, showed Trump leading by five points in a multi-candidate race.

Such numbers would represent Trump's largest lead by a Republican in the state since Ronald Reagan, who won Pennsylvania by seven points in 1984.

Jon Parker, a lecturer in American studies at Keele University in the United Kingdom, said Newsweek Last week he said that with such narrow margins, the election “comes down to turnout and who is most engaged on election day.”

Early voting data showed more Democrats than Republicans have voted in the state so far, with 56 percent of voters registered Democrats and 33 percent Republicans. Democrats are also ahead nationally, according to early voting data. However, it is unclear what this means for the election, as the data only shows whether voters are registered with a party, not who they are voting for.

Still, the data suggests that the Democratic leadership is being driven by the party, with women voting for Harris in large numbers. 54 percent of all early voters identify as women, while 44 percent are men. Harris has focused on galvanizing women this campaign, positioning herself as her party's leading voice on reproductive rights — unlike Trump, who has not said whether he would veto a nationwide abortion ban.

According to the latest John Zogby Strategies poll, 27 percent of voters said abortion was the main issue that would determine their vote in this election.

In Survation's most recent poll of 915 likely voters in Pennsylvania, 27 percent of female voters said abortion was the most important issue in this election.