Back before we had no-excuse mail-in ballots, I recall several instances in which Northampton County's elections results were posted well after midnight on the day following an election. Now we have early voting, mail-in ballots and in-person voting. It's actually three elections in one. By law, elections officials can only start to tabulate mail-in ballots on election day, at 7 am. With all these handicaps, the unofficial results of 150 of the county's 154 voting precincts were posted by midnight. The mail-in ballots for four remaining precincts were still being tabulated when I write first posted this story. Now that all votes have been counted, I'll update with more precise figures.
Elections (unofficial) results show that 130,383 ballots were cast in Tuesday's midterm election in Northampton County. This amounts to an incredible 57.94% turnout. This is the highest percentage turnout in a midterm election that I could find in Northampton County. The advent of no-excuse mail-in balloting and early voting has dramatically increased voter participation.
Prior midterm election percentages are as follows: 2018 - 55.95%; 2014 - 38.31%. The data for 2010 and prior is unavailable online.
We also know that over 94,276 votes were cast in person on election day. There were also 36,307 mail-in ballots.
The victors in Northampton County are as follows:
Governor. - Josh Shapiro has 71,584 votes to Doug Mastriano's 54,716. This is a convincing rebuke of the right-wing extremism that Mastriano represented, along with a poorly run and financed campaign.
U.S. Senate - John Fetterman has a comfortable lead over Mehment Oz. Fetterman has 65,835 votes, while Oz has 59,623.
U.S. Congress, Pa.-7: Incumbent Susan Wild is clinging to a 65,929 to 62,550 vote lead over Lisa Scheller, That race will also be determined by vote counts in Lehigh and Carbon.
Pa. Senate (18th). Incumbent Lisa Boscola has a commanding lead, with 55,329 votes to 40,327 for John Merhottein. (Note: There are separate results in Lehigh County).
Pa. Senate (14th): Dean Browning is ahead of Nick Miller, 18,343 to 14.053. (Note: There are separate results in Lehigh County).
Pa. State Rep. (131st); Kevin Branco is ahead of Incumbent Milou Mackenzie, 2160 to 2125, but the results in other counties must be considered. This is only one or two precincts.
Pa. State Rep. (137th): Incumbent Joe Emrick is clinging to a 15,556 to 14,800 lead over newcomer Anna Thomas. Given that Anna started late and had little money, she did remarkably well.
Pa, State Rep. (138th): Incumbent Ann Flood has easily dispatched Gene Hunter, 18,728 to 10,740. I believe Gene got the Dem nomination as a write-in. In response to a reader's question, Gene is indeed the husband of prominent and proud Democrat Deb Hunter
UPDATED 7:37 PM
8 comments:
Wow, we need to thank the youngsters for voting and keeping Pennsylvania on a liberal path.
Penna. is a proud blue state- will they get rid of inflation, will they get rid of high energy prices, will they solve the crime problem especially in cities, will they close the border to drugs, criminals and what else comes across. Whatever they do the majority of pa citizens should be happy and proud of their vote.
The big red way was squashed and that’s a good thing for the young people of America, we still have a democracy.
What's wrong with the rest of the state? Florida is the third largest state with 22 million population (PA has only 13 million), and they had 99% counted by midnight while prepping for a hurricane. Why is PA so bad at elections?
The reason it takes time in Pennsylvania is that the Republicans in the state legislature have refused to pass a clean bill allowing counties to begin counting mail-in and absentee ballots before Election Day.
Is Gene Hunter related to the tall Hunter woman who ran for county council years ago?
Longer the count, dirtier the results. Cook County Illinois didn't just happen yesterday. The desired election results take some time to cook and can't be rushed. Philadelphia will finish by Dec 15.
So how many days to take down those mini billboard losers signs littering the area?
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