2020 Pennsylvania elections

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A general election was held in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania on November 3, 2020. [1] The office of the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth oversees the election process, including voting and vote counting. [2]

Contents

To vote by mail, registered Pennsylvania voters had to request a ballot by October 27, 2020. [3] As of early October some 2,568,084 voters requested mail ballots. [4]

Election law changes for 2020

On October 29, 2019, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed Act 77 by a vote of 138–61. [5] Later that day, the Pennsylvania State Senate passed Act 77 by a vote of 35–14. [6] Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 77 into law two days later. [7] The law enacted numerous changes to Pennsylvania's election code. Voters were allowed to request a mail-in ballot without providing a reason. [7] A person could register to vote up to 15 days before an election and vote in that election, instead of the previous 30-day period. [7] It said that mail-in ballots and absentee ballots would be valid if received by 8 p.m. on election day. [7] The law eliminated the option of pushing one button to vote for all candidates of the same party, called straight-ticket voting; instead, a voter would need to select each candidate in order to vote the same way. [7] The law said the state would cover up to 60 percent of the cost for counties to replace their voting machines with systems that had voter-verifiable paper. [7] Governor Wolf described the changes as the "most significant improvement to Pennsylvania’s elections in more than 80 years". [8]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania State Senate both unanimously passed Act 12 on March 25, 2020, [9] [10] and Gov. Wolf signed it into law two days later. [11] Act 12 delayed the primary election from April 28 to June 2. Act 12 also allowed counties to begin counting ballots at 7 a.m. on election day rather than being required to wait until 8 p.m. to do so. [12]

Federal offices

President and Vice President of the United States

Pennsylvania had 20 electoral votes in the Electoral College. [13] Incumbent Republican Donald Trump won the state in 2016 with 48.2% of the vote.

2020 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Joe Biden 3,458,229 50.01
Republican Donald Trump (incumbent)3,377,67448.84
Libertarian Jo Jorgensen 79,3801.15
Total votes6,915,283 100.00
Democratic win

United States House of Representatives

Voters in Pennsylvania elected 18 candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the 18 congressional districts. [14]

DistrictDemocratic NomineeRepublican NomineeLibertarian NomineeIndependent Candiates
District 1 Christina Finello Brian Fitzpatrick, incumbentSteve Scheetz (write-in)
District 2 Brendan Boyle, incumbentDavid Torres
District 3 Dwight Evans, incumbentMichael Harvey
District 4 Madeleine Dean, incumbentKathy BernetteJoe Tarshish (write-in)
District 5 Mary Gay Scanlon, incumbentDasha Pruett
District 6 Chrissy Houlahan, incumbentJohn EmmonsJohn H. McHugh (write-in)
District 7 Susan Wild, incumbentLisa SchellerAnthony Sayegh (write-in)
District 8 Matt Cartwright, incumbentJim Bognet
District 9 Gary Wegman Dan Meuser, incumbent
District 10 Eugene DePasquale Scott Perry, incumbent
District 11 Sarah Hammond Lloyd Smucker, incumbent
District 12 Lee Griffin Fred Keller, incumbentElizabeth Terwilliger (write-in)
District 13 Todd Rowley John Joyce, incumbent
District 14 William Marx Guy Reschenthaler, incumbent
District 15 Robert Williams
Ronnie Ray Jenkins (write-in)		 Glenn Thompson, incumbent
District 16 Kristy Gnibus Mike Kelly, incumbent
District 17 Conor Lamb, incumbentSean Parnell
District 18 Michael Doyle, incumbentLuke NegronDonald Nevills (write-in)
Daniel Vayda (write-in)

State offices

Executive offices

Three executive offices were up for election in Pennsylvania's general election: Auditor General, Attorney General, and Treasurer. [15]

Attorney General

Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro ran for re-election to a second term. He was first elected in 2016 with 51.4% of the vote.

2020 Pennsylvania Attorney General election
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Josh Shapiro (incumbent) 3,461,472 50.85
Republican Heather Heidelbaugh3,153,83146.33
Libertarian Daniel Wassmer120,4891.77
Green Richard Weiss70,8041.04
Total votes6,806,596 100.00
Democratic hold

Treasurer

Incumbent Democratic Treasurer Joe Torsella ran for re-election to a second term. He was first elected in 2016 with 50.7% of the vote. He lost re-election to businesswoman and retired U.S. Army Colonel Stacy Garrity.

2020 Pennsylvania State Treasurer election
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Stacy Garrity 3,291,877 48.68
Democratic Joe Torsella (incumbent)3,239,33147.91
Libertarian Joseph Soloski148,6142.20
Green Timothy Runkle81,9841.21
Total votes6,761,806 100.00
Republican gain from Democratic

Auditor General

Incumbent Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale was term-limited and ineligible to seek a third consecutive term. He was re-elected in 2016 with 50.0% of the vote. Dauphin County controller Timothy DeFoor won the election against former Philadelphia deputy mayor Nina Ahmad.

2020 Pennsylvania Auditor General election
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Timothy DeFoor 3,338,009 49.44
Democratic Nina Ahmad3,129,13146.35
Libertarian Jennifer Moore205,9293.05
Green Olivia Faison78,5881.16
Total votes6,751,657 100.00
Republican gain from Democratic

Pennsylvania Senate

25 of 50 seats (odd-numbered districts) in the Pennsylvania Senate were up for election in Pennsylvania's general election. [16]

Special elections

A special election was also held on January 14 in the 48th senatorial district after the resignation of Republican Senator Mike Folmer.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

All 203 seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives were up for election in the general election. [17]

Special elections

Special elections were held for the 8th, 18th, 58th, and 190th districts prior to the general election.

Pennsylvania ballot measures

There were no statewide ballot measures up for election in this general election; however, there were local ballot measures in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. [18]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Pennsylvania elections, 2020". Ballotpedia.org . Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  2. ↑ Dionne Searcey (October 1, 2020), "When Your Job Is to Make Sure Nov. 3 Isn't a Disaster", Nytimes.com
  3. ↑ Lily Hay Newman (August 27, 2020), "How to Vote by Mail and Make Sure It Counts", Wired.com , archived from the original on October 6, 2020
  4. ↑ Michael P. McDonald, "2020 General Election Early Vote Statistics", U.S. Elections Project, retrieved October 10, 2020, Detailed state statistics
  5. ↑ "Details for House RCS No. 781". Pennsylvania House of Representatives October 29, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Details for Senate RCS No. 311". Pennsylvania State Senate. October 29, 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Murphy, Jan (October 31, 2019). "Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf signs historic election reform bill into law". pennlive.com. Advance Local Media LLC.
  8. ↑ "Governor Wolf Signs Election Reform Bill Including New Mail-in Voting". Governor Tom Wolf. October 31, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Details for House RCS No. 1139". Pennsylvania House of Representatives. March 25, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Details for Senate RCS No. 414". Pennsylvania State Senate. March 25, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Gov. Wolf signs COVID-19 response bills to reschedule Primary Election & bolster Health Care system, workers, and education [ permanent dead link ]". Fox 43. WPMT March 27, 2020.
  12. ↑ Terruso, Julia (March 27, 2020). "Pennsylvania just postponed its primary due to coronavirus. Here's what it means for voters and 2020 campaigns". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Distribution of Electoral Votes". National Archives. September 19, 2019. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  14. ↑ "United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania, 2020". Ballotpedia. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  15. ↑ "Pennsylvania state executive official elections, 2020". Ballotpedia. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Pennsylvania State Senate elections, 2020". Ballotpedia. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Pennsylvania House of Representatives elections, 2020". Ballotpedia. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  18. ↑ "November 3, 2020 ballot measures in Pennsylvania". Ballotpedia. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  19. ↑ Brent Kendall; Alexa Corse (October 11, 2020), "Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio See Court Rulings Over Mail Ballots", The Wall Street Journal , Both political parties are mounting legal challenges across many states, with mail-in voting at the center
  20. ↑ "Covered Areas for Voting Rights Bilingual Election Materials—2015", Voting Rights Act Amendments of 2006, Determinations Under Section 203, Federal Register , retrieved October 13, 2020, A Notice by the Census Bureau on 12/05/2016

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