More than 1.3 million Pennsylvania voters requested an absentee or mail ballot for Tuesday’s midterm election prior to the Oct. 27 deadline, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Registered Democrats requested 841,155 ballots (64%), registered Republicans requested 325,188 ballots (25%), and Independent/Third Party voters requested 147,669 ballots (11%).
As of 9 a.m. Thursday, 965,837 of those ballots have been returned, a rate of more than 70%.
Democratic voters have returned 629,099 of those ballots. Registered Republicans have returned 243,338 mail or absentee ballots, and Independent/Third Party voters have returned 93,400 ballots.
The number of mail ballot applications falls short of what Pennsylvania elections officials received in the 2022 midterm elections. More than 1.4 million Pennsylvanians applied to vote by mail in 2022, and more than 1.2 million of those ballots were returned.
Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls in Pennsylvania are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Completed ballots must be received by your county election board office by 8 p.m. on Election Day. A postmark by 8 p.m. Nov. 3 is not sufficient. You can mail it in (though many voting advocates advise against this now), drop it off at your county elections office, or at an authorized drop box if your county has one.
To be sure your ballot was accepted and counted, you can track your ballot’s status online through PA Voter Services. If you provided your email address to your county elections office at the time you registered to vote or applied for a ballot, you will receive an email notification when your returned ballot is recorded.
