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"We've got two good candidates, and people are working very hard," said city GOP Chairman Dave Stoltzfus. "It's difficult for us to win in the city, but we're going to give it the one-two punch."
In the suburbs, Democrats are hoping to build on their success of recent years by electing candidates to township and borough boards. In Lancaster Township, for example, a win would topple the GOP's control of the three-member board of supervisors.
"It's going to be one of those numbers games: How many people are going to show up to vote?" said Rebecca Lyttle, a Democratic committeewoman in Lancaster Township.
"If we win, I think it's going to be a big deal. It will show that the Democrats are going to be a force to be reckoned with," she said.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. in all 234 voting districts across the county. Registered voters who are in line at 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
About one in four of Lancaster County's 313,654 and Pennsylvania's 8.5 million registered voters will go to the polls, estimates Franklin & Marshall College political analyst G. Terry Madonna.
At the local level, they will be deciding races for school board, borough mayor and council, township supervisor and commissioner, as well as tax collector, auditor and constable.
At the county level, they will decide the race for controller between a Republican, Keith Greiner, and a Constitution Party candidate Adele Callahan; the recorder of deeds courthouse row office is also up for election, but there is only one candidate running, Republican Bonnie Bowman.
Voters also will be electing state Supreme Court justices, and Superior and Commonwealth Court judges.
In the most high-profile and hotly contested local race, pharmacist Charlie Smithgall, a Republican, is waging a shoestring campaign to unseat Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, a Democrat, in a campaign that has dwelled largely on police and public safety issues.
"I've never had a crew that's worked as hard on an election as this crew," Smithgall said of his campaign volunteers. "We've put 14,000 or 15,000 pieces through the letter slots in two days."
Smithgall, who will be campaigning at polling places across the city today, said of his chances: "I feel good."
Gray also will be greeting voters throughout the day. "We're well organized, and we should have somebody at all the polling places. We're ready to go," Gray said.
Despite dozens of vacant committee seats, the city GOP believes it has recruited enough volunteers to work most polling places.
"We've seen an unbelievable amount of support," Stoltzfus said. "For the first time in a long time, the GOP has the entire southeast covered. We should have coverage throughout the city for the first time in a long time."
Historically, roughly one in four voters in Lancaster turn out for a mayoral contest. The last time Gray and Smithgall squared off, in 2005, only 8,783 of the city's 35,400 registered voters — or less than 25 percent — went to the polls, according to newspaper records.
Also in the city, Republican Matthew Holden is trying to knock off one of four Democrats running for council — incumbents Louise B. Williams, Jose Urdaneta and Tim Roschel, as well as Todd E. Smith. Democrats hold all seven seats on council.
Outside the city, Democrats are looking to pick up seats in townships and boroughs — from Ephrata and Lititz in the north to Conestoga Township in the south — and believe their chances are good.
In Lancaster Township, one of the most closely watched suburban races, veteran Supervisor Tony Allen, a Republican, is being challenged by Benjamin H. Bamford, a Democrat.
It's the first municipal election in which Democratic voters outnumber Republican voters. If Bamford wins this year, Democrats will control the three-member board.
And in Manheim Township, Democrat Doreen Kreiner is trying to win one of three seats up for election on the board of commissioners. She needs to beat only one of the three Republicans — Rick Casselbury, James M. Martin and J. Michael Flanagan — to win a seat on the all-GOP board.
Democratic Party officials have identified the races in Lancaster and Manheim townships as being of high priority, but they are running candidates in other municipalities as well.
Voters in the Donegal School District will decide whether to borrow $47.9 million to build a new high school. A previous referendum seeking to borrow $114 million for a more expansive building program failed.
The weather forecast is relatively uneventful. There's a slight chance of a shower, but Election Day is expected to be variably cloudy. The afternoon will be breezy, with gusts of around 15 mph, but temperatures will remain in the mid-50s.
"All in all, that's pretty much standard fare for November 3rd," said Millersville University meteorologist Eric Horst. "It'll be pretty much a seasonable day."
In what has emerged as the most high-profile statewide race, the two candidates for Pennsylvania's Supreme Court — Democrat Jack Panella and Republican Joan Orie Melvin — have been slugging it out with one TV attack ad after another. Both candidates are currently judges on the state Superior Court.
Voters also will be filling four seats on the Superior Court and two on the Commonwealth Court.
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