Pittsburgh Steelers buy dinner for Pennsylvania poll workers tirelessly counting votes overnight

It's been a long three days for anyone who has been following the US Presidential elections, and let's face it, the whole world has been tuning in to find out who the next President is. Life has been a lot harder and exhausting for election workers who have been working overtime to deliver accurate results with the world's eyes on the elections. The Pittsburgh Steelers showed their appreciation for election workers in Allegheny County on Wednesday night by buying them dinner, reported CBS News. The election workers had been working diligently under much pressure in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. At the time of writing this article, Donald Trump was leading Biden in Pennsylvania and needed to win the state to have any chance to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to return to the White House. 

The Twitter account for Allegheny County shared a video of the food delivery and thanked the team for the gesture. "Thank you, Steelers, for your kindness. Chicken, rigatoni, veggies, rolls, pies, and more! We're grateful for the wonderful food from ⁦The Goose Express," read the tweet. The Allegheny County Twitter said the Steelers had also dessert for the election workers. None of the players were present at the time of the delivery, but they shared videos of the post on their timelines and thanked the election workers. The Allegheny County spokeswoman Amie Downs told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Steelers' officials had reached out to them on Wednesday asking how they could be of help. They then sent food for the poll workers. Linebacker Vince Williams had also retweeted the news about the delivery. Sixty-five parcels of food were delivered to the election workers, reported CNN. "We figured it was a good opportunity to help them give back," said Amanda Wood, an employee who delivered the food.

The election workers in strategic states had been working overtime. The election workers at Allegheny County had been working for 22 hours straight and had stopped counting the ballots only at 2.30 a.m. on Wednesday. They then returned the next morning at 10 a.m. to start all over again. The mail-in ballots saw a sharp rise on account of the coronavirus pandemic and have played a crucial role in expanding the voter base more than ever. Interestingly, the Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin had a role in encouraging people of the state to vote by mail ahead of the 2020 Presidential election. He appeared in a public service announcement in September encouraging people to do so. The Steelers also partnered with a local foundation to donate 5,000 masks to election officials in Allegheny County. "We're professionally focused, but we've been talking continually about being active participants in the political process and exercising our right to vote," said Tomlin in a news conference. "It requires no special meeting or no point of emphasis today. We all know what today is."

The increased voter turnout has been the highest since 1908 when 65 percent of eligible Americans voted. It is estimated that 160 million votes have been cast in the Presidential election, putting the eligible turnout at 67 percent. Allegheny County was tallying the votes on Thursday and Friday. As of Thursday night, there were still 35,806 mail-in ballots to be counted in the state. At the time of writing this article, 95 percent of the votes had been tallied in the state with Trump leading Biden 49.5 percent to 49.2 percent, according to The New York Times. With Trump constantly attacking mail-in voting, it was Democrats who predominantly used the mail option to cast their vote. Of the 3.1 million applications for mail ballots requested in Pennsylvania, twice as many Democrats requested for them as Republicans.