PENNSYLVANIA

20 Electoral Votes

Population  (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Pennsylvania Department of State) Total Resident Population, July 1, 2019 est. 12,801,989 Total Registration, Nov. 2020   9,090,962  > Dem. 4,228,888 (46.52%)   Rep. 3,543,070 (38.97%)   others 1,319,004 (14.51%) Pennsylvania has: 67 counties. Largest counties: Philadelphia, Allegheny, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware. Largest cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie.  Government Governor: Tom Wolf (D) re-elected 2018. State Legislature: Pennsylvania General Assembly   House: 203 seats   Senate: 50 seats Local: Counties, Municipalities...   NACO U.S. House: 9R, 9D - 1. B.Fitzpatrick (R) | 2. B.Boyle (D) | 3. D.Evans (D) | 4. M.Dean (D) | 5. M.G.Scanlon (D) | 6. C.Houlahan (D) | 7. S.Wild (D) | 8. M.Cartwright (D) | 9. D.Meuser (R) | 10. S.Perry (R) | 11. L.Smucker (R) | 12. F.Keller (R) | 13. J.Joyce (R) | 14. G.Reschenthaler (R) | 15. GT Thompson (R) | 16. M.Kelly (R) | 17. C.Lamb (D) | 18. M.Doyle (D).   > U.S. Senate: Bob Casey Jr. (D) re-elected in 2018, Pat Toomey (R) re-elected in 2016.  2020 U.S. House:  All 18 members were re-elected.  The closest races were in PA-17 (Western PA, parts of Allegheny, Beaver and Butler Cos.) where Rep. Conor Lamb (D) defeated Sean Parnell (R) by 51.1% to 48.9% and PA-7 (Eastern PA, parts of Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton Cos; includes Allentown) where first-term Rep. Susan Wild (D) defeated Lisa Scheller (R) by 51.9% to 48.1%. Also note: In PA-12 (Central and Northern PA) Rep. Tom Marino (R) resigned effective Jan. 23, 2019.  Fred Keller (R) was elected in a May 21, 2019 special election. State Legislature: 25 of 50 Senate seats and all 203 House seats were up.  The balance in the Senate stayed at 28R,21D,1o and the House went from 109R,93D,1v to 113R,90D. Ballot Measures: No statewide ballot measures.

State of Pennsylvania Department of State PA Democratic Party Republican State Comm. of PA Libertarian Party of PA Green Party of PA Constitution Party of PA Inquirer/Daily News, p Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p Newspapers TV, Radio PoliticsPA.com City & State PA Politics1-PA Ballotpedia-PA The Keystone State

General Election -- Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Voter Registration Deadline: Oct. 19, 2020. While officials in states around the country were grappling with mail in voting, Pennsylvania was ahead of the curve; on Oct. 31, 2019, Gov. Wolf signed Act 77, "the most significant improvement to Pennsylvania’s elections in more than 80 years," which included no excuse mail in voting, a 50-day mail in voting period and 15 additional days to register to vote (+).  Further aiding voters, the Secretary of State provided funding to cover postage for mail-in and absentee ballots (+). E. Day Mail Prov. Biden 1,409,341 1,995,691 53,168 Trump 2,731,230 595,538 50,874 Jorgensen 53,318 24,783 1,277 Vote by Mail Litigation Pennsylvania saw perhaps the most robust litigation on vote by mail of any state.  The most closely contested issue was the "received-by deadline for mail-in ballots," in other words whether mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day, or if they can be postmarked by Election Day and counted a fixed number of days thereafter.  Other issues included the use of drop boxes and "naked ballots," where the voter neglected to use the secrecy envelope.     The U.S. Department of Justice was on the alert for violations of law (1, 2), and legal teams from both camps were poised and ready for post-election litigation (+).

Official Results >   +Biden/Harris (Dem.) 3,458,229 (50.01) Trump/Pence (Rep.) 3,377,674 (48.84) Jorgensen/Cohen (Lib.) 79,380 (1.15) Total........6,915,283 Ballot Access: Requirement of 5,000 valid signatures from registered Pennsylvania voters between Feb. 19 and Aug. 3, 2020.  Litigation by the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania et al. to waive the requirement proved unsuccessful (+).  The Libertarian ticket qualified and the Green Party ticket appeared to have qualified, but a Sept. 17, 2020 ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck Hawkins/Walker off the ballot (+).

Overview: Trump eked out a narrow upset in Pennsylvania in 2016, but the Biden campaign pulled out all stops here in 2020 and the Keystone State fittingly provided the key to Biden's victory.  The AP's call of Pennsylvania for Biden on Nov. 7 put him over the 270 electoral vote threshold and made him president-elect.  Ultimately Biden prevailed with a plurality of 80,555 votes (1.17 percentage points), carrying 13 of 67 counties.      Biden's Scranton roots are well known—he spent his first ten years there until his family moved to Delaware in 1953.  Jill Biden too has Pennsylvania ties, having grown up in Willow Grove, an edge city of Philadelphia.  Biden set up his campaign headquarters in Philadelphia and held his kickoff rally at Eakins Oval in Philadelphia in May 2019 (+).  From his home in neighboring Delaware, Biden could easily visit Pennsylvania, and he did so frequently during the general election campaign.     By the latter part of September, Pennsylvania assumed an increasingly important role in the Trump campaign's electoral calculations as well.  For the final 15 days of the campaign, one of the Republican candidates or a family surrogate was in state doing events.    In addition to frequent visits by principals and surrogates from both campaigns, Pennsylvania saw second largest amount of spending on presidential advertising after Florida, a total of $268.4 million by the campaigns and their allies from May 1 to Nov. 3.  Adjusting in terms of spending per electoral vote, Pennsylvania led all states in presidential ad spending. Trump  |  Biden  General Election Details BALLOT [PDF] POST-ELECTION

Primary Election -- Tuesday, April 28, 2020 June 2, 2020

Democrats Biden 1,264,624 (79.26%), Sanders 287,834 (18.04%), Gabbard 43,050 (2.70%)  ...Total 1,595,508. 210 Delegates: 125 District, 41 At-Large, 20 PLEO and 24 Unpledged.

Republicans Trump 1,053,616 (92.14%), Weld 69,427 (6.07%), De La Fuente 20,456 (1.79%)  ...Total 1,143,499.

---

General Election Winners in Pennsylvania, 1992-2016

1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016
Clinton 45.15%	Clinton 49.17%	Gore 50.60%	Kerry 50.92%	Obama 54.65%	Obama 52.08%	Trump 48.58%

General Election -- Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Voting Eligible Population*: 9,674.379. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 59.4%. Registration: Dem. 4,266,317 (50.14%)   Rep. 3,131,144 (36.80%)   Other Parties 1,110,554 (13.05%)  ...Total 8,508,015. Voter Registration Deadline: Oct. 9, 2012. +

Official Results > Romney/Ryan (Rep.) 2,680,434 (46.68) Obama/Biden (Dem.) 2,990,274 (52.08) Stein/Honkala (Grn.) 21,341 (0.37) Johnson/Gray (Lib.) 49,991 (0.87) Total........5,742,040

2012 Overview The Romney campaign made a play in Pennsylvania and improved significantly on the 2008 McCain tally, but the outcome was the same.  Obama-Biden carried the state by 309,840 votes (5.40 percentage points).  Romney carried 54 counties to 13 for Obama, but could not overcome Obama's strong showing in Philadelphia: 588,806 (85.29%) to 96,467 (13.97%), a plurality of 492,339 votes. General Election Details Obama  |  Romney BALLOT [PDF]

General Election -- Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Voting Eligible Population*: 9,363,381. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 64.2%. Registration: Dem. 4,480,691 (51.16%)   Rep. 3,243,391 (37.03%)   No Affiliation 464,968 (5.31%)   All Other 568,981 (6.50%)  ...Total   8,758,031. Last day to register before the General Election is Oct. 6, 2008.  >

Official Results > +Obama/Biden (Dem.) 3,276,363 (54.65) McCain/Palin (Rep.) 2,655,885 (44.30) Nader/Gonzalez (Ind.) 42,977 (0.72) Barr/Root (Lib.) 19,912 (0.33) Total........5,995,137

2008 Overview Pennsylvania became a must win state for McCain.  The Republican campaign made an intense effort in the state, but Obama-Biden achieved a comfortable margin of 620,478 votes (10.35 percentage points); McCain carried 49 counties to 18 for Obama.  In Philadelphia County Obama won 83.1% of the vote, gaining 595,980 votes to 117,221 for McCain (a plurality of 478,759 votes). General Election Details Obama/Allies  |  McCain/Allies  |  Nader

General Election -- Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Voting Eligible Population*: 9,221,962. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 62.6%. Registration: Dem. 3,985,486 (47.64%)   Rep. 3,405,278 (40.70%)   Lib. 34,258 (0.41%)  Grn. 15,788 (0.19%)   Other Parties 925,853 (11.07%)   ....Total 8,366,663. Last day to register: Oct. 4, 2004.

Official Results +Kerry/Edwards (Dem.) 2,938,095 (50.92) Bush/Cheney (Rep.) 2,793,847 (48.42) Badnarik/Campagna (Lib.) 21,185 (0.37) Cobb/LaMarche (Grn.) 6,319 (0.11) Peroutka/Baldwin (Const.) 6,318 (0.11) Ralph Nader (write-in) 2,656 (0.05) Scattered (write-in) 1,170 (0.02) Total........5,769,570

2004 Overview 854,451 more votes were cast in the presidential race in 2004 than in 2000.  The Kerry-Edwards ticket carried the state, but Bush trimmed the Democratic plurality to 144,248 votes (2.50 percentage points) and the Republican ticket also carried five more counties than it had in 2000, or 54 counties to 13 for Kerry.  General Election Details  |  Photos Kerry/Allies  |  Bush/Cheney '04

General Election -- Tuesday, November 7, 2000

Voting Eligible Population*: 9,086,897. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 54.1%. Registration: Dem. 3,736,304 (48.01%)   Rep. 3,250,764 (41.77%)   Const. 7,918 (0.10%)    Lib. 30,248 (0.39%)   Other Parties 756,763  (9.72%)   ...Total 7,781,997 Last day to register: Oct. 10, 2000.

Official Results                Bush/Cheney (Rep.) 2,281,127 (46.43) +Gore/Lieberman (Dem.) 2,485,967 (50.60) Phillips/Frazier (Const.)    14,428 (0.29) Browne/Olivier (Lib.) 11,248 (0.23) Nader/LaDuke (Grn.) 103,392 (2.10) Buchanan/Foster (Ref.)    16,023 (0.33) Write-ins 934 (0.02) Total........4,913,119 Notes: In Pennsylvania the Republicans and Democrats are major parties, while the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party qualify as minor parties.  Others are referred to as "political bodies."  Minor party and other presidential candidates wishing to appear on the ballot in the general election needed to obtain signatures from 21,739 registered electors (2% of the highest showing by a candidate in the last statewide election) in the period from Jan. 26-Aug. 1, 2000.

2000 Overview Pennsylvania, with 23 electoral votes, was a battleground state from beginning to end, drawing much attention and resources from both campaigns.  Before the race even got underway, both parties considered holding their nominating conventions in Philadelphia.  On Election Night itself, when networks prematurely called Florida for Bush, Pennsylvania was for a time seen as a must-win for Bush.  As it was, Gore-Lieberman carried the state with a plurality of 204,840 votes (4.17 percentage points).  Bush carried 49 counties to 18 for Gore, but Gore won in the five most populous counties, including a plurality of 348,223 votes in Philadelphia County. General Election Activity

1992 and 1996 General Elections

Archive Pages: 2016 | 2012 | 2008 | 2004 | 2000

1992 Clinton (Dem.).....2,239,164 (45.15) Bush (Rep.).........1,791,841 (36.13) Perot (PfP).............902,667 (18.20) Others (2)................26,138 (0.52) Total........4,959,810

1996 Clinton (Dem.).....2,215,819 (49.17) Dole (Rep.)..........1,801,169 (39.97) Perot (Ref.)............430,984 (9.56) Others (3+w/ins).......58,146 (1.29) Total........4,506,118

Copyright © 2002-20 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.