Democrats continue to dominate in mail-in ballot requests
Effort underway to convince Republicans to use them
Democrats continue to outpace Republicans in seeking to vote by mail.
Slightly more than 43,000 voters in the Lehigh Valley applied and were approved to receive mail-in ballots as of May 4, according to state statistics.
Of that number, 33,162 Democrats requested ballots in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Republicans numbered 9,935 – slightly less than a third of the requests. There were also 137 “other” requests.
Statewide, 577,094 Democrats requested and were approved for mail-in ballots versus 173,186 Republicans.
Only Democrats and Republicans can vote in the May 16 primary – and they can only vote for candidates on their respective party ballots. The deadline to apply to vote by mail for the primary election is May 9. You can click here to request one. Once received, the state must then approve the request.
Lehigh County Mail-in Ballots Approvals
Democrats: 15,489
Republicans: 4,800
Other: 127
Total 20,416Northampton County Mail-in Ballots Approvals
Democrats: 17,673
Republicans: 5,135
Other: 10
Total: 22,818
The chasm in ballot requests comes as Republicans leaders have warmed to the idea of voting by mail – which was approved with bipartisan support in Harrisburg in October 2019, but spurned by Republicans after mail-in ballots were perceived as helping Democrat Joe Biden defeat then President Trump in the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. Republican-led opposition to mail-in voting resulted in multiple lawsuits.
The change in thinking began to emerge weeks after Democrat Josh Shapiro defeated Republican Sen. Doug Mastriano for governor with 64% of the vote and the Democrats retook the state House. Seventy percent of the of the more than 1.4 million Pennsylvania voters who requested mail-in ballots for the November election were Democrats,
Recently, Lisa Scheller, a Republican who twice lost to Democrat incumbent Susan Wild in the 7th Congressional District, and Republican Dean Browning, who lost to Democrat Nick Miller in November in the state’s 14th Senate District, announced plans to reverse the trend.
Scheller, Browning and Arnaud Armstrong, a political operative, created the Win Again PAC, which is “dedicated to improving Republican get out the vote efforts in Pennsylvania and ending the Democrats' mail-in monopoly,” according to a press release.
The trio said Republicans continue to rely on Election Day turnout to win. “In doing so, we have given Democrats an extraordinary turnout advantage — allowing our opponents several weeks to vote while only allowing ourselves one day. The results speak for themselves — in dozens of close races across the state Republicans have lost because of our failure to use all of the tools at our disposal.”
While the deadline to request a mail-in ballot for the primary is days away, many voters have already received them. Completed ballots can be mailed in (they have pre-paid postage), placed in county drop-boxes or taken to the voter’s county election office.
Mail-in ballots must meet the following criteria to be counted:
The ballot must be sealed inside the secrecy envelope.
If the secrecy envelope contains any text, marks, or symbols which reveal the identity of the elector, the elector’s political affiliation, or the elector’s candidate preference, the envelope and the ballot it contains will be set aside and declared void.
The voter must sign and date the outer return envelope.
The ballot must be received by the election office by 8 p.m. on May 16. Ballots received after that, even if they bear a May 16 postmark, will not be counted.
State law prevents another person from depositing an individual’s ballot into a box, mailing them or hand-delivering them. That is, unless the person returning the ballot is rendering assistance to a disabled voter or emergency absentee voter and has a signed “Certification of Designated Agent” form. A copy of these forms can be downloaded here.
Lehigh County drop-box locations
District 1: Whitehall Township Municipal Building
3219 MacArthur Road, Whitehall
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
District 2: Lehigh County Authority Lobby
1053 Spruce Road, Wescosville
Monday to Friday, 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
District 3: Fountain Hill Borough Building
941 Long St. Fountain Hill
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
District 4: Lehigh County Government Center
17 South 7th St. Allentown
Available 24/7 at main entrance
District 5: Macungie Borough Building
21 Locust St., Macungie
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Northampton County drop-box locations
Northampton County Courthouse
669 Washington St., Easton
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Northampton County Human Services Building
2801 Emrick Blvd., Bethlehem Township
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Northampton County 911 Center
100 Gracedale Ave., Upper Nazareth Township
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Bethlehem City Hall
10 E. Church St., Bethlehem
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Open to 8 p.m. on Election Day