Polling stations in Lehigh County were busy, as was expected, but most didn’t need the police. One did in Bethlehem.

Timothy Benyo, the chief clerk for the Lehigh County Elections Office in Allentown, said the police were called out to the polling station because a man with a rifle was standing on a corner across from it shouting political viewpoints.

He said the police watched the man for a while and determined that he wasn’t doing anything wrong. They didn’t talk to him, according to Benyo. The man eventually left.

“He was far enough away from the polling place,” Benyo said, so it wasn’t considered an act of voter intimidation.

No further information about the incident was available.

Benyo said he expects at least 80% of registered voters in the county to vote in the presidential election.

“It will be pretty good this year,” he said.

As far as having a number late in the evening on Election Day, Benyo said, “It’s not happening.”

He’s optimistic that they will have the bulk of the ballots, including mail-in ballots, counted by Wednesday evening.

Lehigh County has 250,000 voters, he said, and 90,000 of them requested mail-in ballots. As of Tuesday morning, 72,000 of those ballots had been returned already.

“We’re counting 24/7 until we’re done,” he said.

The Lehigh office has 10 full-time employees and 8 part-time employees, but they have an additional 17 employees for the election count and several other people from county polling stations that said they would help to count. In all, Benyo said he has about 140 people available to help with the task.

“It’s not enough,” he said. Each ballot has two envelopes that have to be opened and reviewed, and then counted, then times it by at least 72,000. The task is somewhat daunting.

Voters were encouraged to drop off their mail-in ballots at a drop-off box or bring it with them to the polling station this close to the election. Any mail-in ballots sent through the postal service had to be postmarked by 5 p.m. on Election Day to be counted. These ballots will be included as long as they are received at the election office by 5 p.m. on Friday.

Benyo said he and his staff will stay as long as they have to Friday night to count the last of the ballots.

Northampton County

There weren’t any protests at the polling precincts, but one man did get injured early Tuesday morning when his gun accidentally went off while he was in his vehicle.

The man was at a polling precinct at 707 American Bangor Road in Washington Township when the gun went off, said Becky Bartlett, the deputy director of administration at the Northampton County Government Center in Easton.

A report on the incident said the man was treated for a non-life-threatening wound at an area hospital.

Aside from that, the worst for voters in Northampton County were long lines.

“We heard reports of long lines but don’t have an estimate at this time,” she said.

Bartlett said the county was able to run all 154 polling precincts fully staffed. There weren’t any consolidations of precincts, but some precincts were located in the same building. They were run separately and had separate staff.

The county has 227,315 registered voters. Bartlett said 102,436 are registered Democrat, 81,345 are Republican, and 45,534 are other parties.

As for mail-in ballots, the county approved 85,100 requests, and as of Monday, 75,000 had been returned. A staff of 24 people now have the task of counting them.