Delco teams up with Philadelphia Union to host voter center this weekend

A three-day ‘pop-up’ voter service center kicked off Friday at Subaru Park in Chester, home of the Philadelphia Union.

The center gives Delaware County residents the opportunity to register to vote, as well as request and drop off early voting ballots while abiding by public health guidelines.

“We’re excited to provide this service at such a great facility which allows our County Bureau of Elections to provide a variety of voting services transparently and safely,” said Howard Lazarus, the county’s executive director.

Tim McDermott, team president of the Union, said that this is an important initiative to his players and Major League Soccer, giving everyone a chance to exercise their civic duty regardless of political party.

Aside from Delaware County’s three voter service centers, the county is implementing 32 early-voting ballot dropboxes beginning Tuesday, October 20 — a strategy used by Philadelphia and other area counties.

As of October 16, Delaware County residents requested more than 127,000 mail-in ballots and 1.5% of those have been returned to officials so far.

Darryl Turner, 66 of Chester, came to the center to submit an early ballot for Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Turner, who’s retired, believes that his health care and social security will be better protected with Biden in the White House.

“Realistically, it has to better than what I seen for the past four years,” he said