Democrats in Pa. continue to use mail-in voting more than Republicans
Significantly more Democrats voted by mail than Republicans in the Nov. 7 election, both statewide and in the Lehigh Valley.
Despite a push this year by Republicans to promote the use of mail-in ballots that disparity continued a trend that began in 2020 when mail-in voting was first used in Pennsylvania.
Why is that?
Democrats do a better job promoting mail-in ballots, said Dean Browning, a longtime Republican figure in Lehigh Valley politics.
“They're extremely good at it. They have a ton of nonprofit groups that do it. They have committees, the candidates, a host of groups that really work at this and they have funding behind it,” said Browning, a co-founder of Win Again PAC, which was created earlier this year to increase mail-in ballot use among GOP voters.
Lori McFarland, chair of the Lehigh County Democratic Committee, offered a different reason, noting Republican leaders undermined confidence in elections and mail-in ballots.
“Democrats don’t believe in conspiracy theories. And we don't fear that there's a lack of integrity in the mail-in ballots. We don't buy into that,” she said.
The numbers comparing mail-in ballots returned in the Nov. 7 election and the last off-year election in 2021 show just how much Democrats outperformed Republicans.
Statewide, Democrats cast 587,436 mail-in ballots, an increase of 49,596 from 2021, according to an analysis of state voting data. Republicans returned 168,965 ballots, an increase of 8,336.
The Lehigh Valley numbers provided by the counties reflect a similar pattern in last month’s election:
Lehigh County: Democrats, 16,484 mail ballots cast, an increase of 1,924; Republicans, 4,566, an increase of 165.
Northampton County: Democrats, 18,285 mail ballots returned, an increase of 3,069; Republicans, 4,810 returned, an increase of 676.
(The numbers reflect all ballots returned by mail, including traditional absentee ballots, which make up a small percentage of the total.)
The Republican-controlled state Legislature approved mail-in voting, which became law in 2019 when then-Gov. Wolf, a Democrat, signed Act 77 into law.
It has been used since the 2020 primary - a presidential election year - and has been criticized by Republicans, with former President Trump as the leading critic in presenting claims of abuse and fraud, all of which have been proven false. But now he supports voting by mail, acknowledging in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March that it’s time for Republicans to “change our thinking” on the issue, CNN reported.
In Pennsylvania, Act 77 has been challenged by several lawsuits focused primarily on whether voters need to properly date the outer envelopes as required by law.
The most recent decision, by U.S. Western District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter in November, said voters did not need to date the ballots, writing that to reject such votes over a minor issue violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Counties know through logging and a scanning system if the ballot has been returned by the deadline, which is the determining factor.
Federal judge invalidates date requirement on mail-in ballots
Last week, the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican Party of Pennsylvania appealed Baxter’s decision to the U/S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That was the same court in which three judges issued a similar decision in 2022 for a case over undated envelopes in Lehigh County for a judicial race; Democrat Zachary Cohen was able to overtake Republican David Ritter by five votes when the contested ballots were eventually counted.
Because of controversy and confusion over dating the ballot’s outer envelope, the Pennsylvania Department of State that oversees elections statewide, on Nov. 29 announced changes to mail-in ballots to make it clearer how to properly fill out ballots and envelopes.
In creating the Win Again PAC, Browning teamed up with Lisa Scheller, who lost the 7th District congressional election in 2020 and 2022 to incumbent Democrat Rep. Susan Wild.
After the recent election when Democratic judicial candidates swept statewide contests, Scheller blasted the Republican effort to increase mail voting turnout among GOP voters.
“There are no good reasons for Republicans to be doing as poorly as we are; we’re simply falling short when it comes to doing what is necessary in order to win, particularly with respect to organizing, turnout, and early voting,” she said in a statement released by Win Again. “In other words, the work isn’t getting done.”
The PAC failed to gain much traction this year, Browning said. The state Republican Committee didn’t support it, which hampered its ability to do more.
Win Again spent about $30,000-$35,000 for the general election, focusing efforts to increase mail-in ballots among Republicans in the Lehigh Valley, Allegheny County (where a key county executive election was won by a Democrat), and Bucks County, he said.
The PAC will use lessons learned this year to develop a more robust plan for 2024 by raising more money and increasing efforts to contact a greater number of GOP voters in Pennsylvania, particularly those who voted by mail in 2020 but have not voted regularly since, Browning said.
“There were 60,000 Republicans that voted by mail in 2020 that have not been seen or heard from since then, that didn't vote in ’21, ’22 or ’23,” he said. “So to my way of thinking, that should be a pool of voters that we should target and to get them to sign up to vote by mail.”