Political parties’ efforts to get people signed up to vote in the June 2 primary have been hampered by coronavirus-related restrictions.

Still, both major parties saw slight registration gains in Allegheny County compared to pre-primary numbers in the last presidential election year, and GOP registrations in Westmoreland County are up about 10 percentage points, state records show. The number of registered Democrats in Westmoreland, however, is down almost 13%.

Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco, a county councilman from North Fayette, said his committee normally holds voter registration drives at events such as trade shows, gun bashes and fish fries. But those all have been shut down because of the pandemic, he said.

“Considering that the governor had a stay-at-home order in place and political organizations were defined as nonessential and non-life-sustaining, we haven’t been able to do a lot,” DeMarco said.

Monday was the last day Pennsylvanians could register to vote in this year’s primary.

They had the option of registering online or by mailing or delivering an application to their county voter registration office.

Westmoreland County Republican Chairman Kerry Jobe, a Salem Township supervisor, said his committee has been using social media to encourage people to register online to vote.

“Everything’s been shut down out here. We don’t have any events to go to,” Jobe said, adding the last organized, in-person event in which the committee participated was the March 17 special election for the 58th District.

“The governor’s order came out two weeks later,” Jobe said. “Everybody started to stay home and the major events were canceled.”

Pennsylvania Department of State data show that more than 212,000 people have submitted online voter registration applications, including new registered voters and people updating existing registrations. As of Monday, about 25,500 people had registered online in Allegheny County compared to about 5,700 in Westmoreland County.

Allegheny County’s Democratic and Republican parties both saw an increase in voters from April 2016, the last presidential election year.

As of May 11, Allegheny County had 522,103 registered Democrats, up 0.4% from April 2016, and 250,682 registered Republicans, up 1.9%, according to the Department of State. The total number of registered voters increased by about 2.4%.

Westmoreland County saw an increase in Republican voters but a decrease in Democratic ones in the same span. As of May 11, Westmoreland had 108,697 registered Republicans, up 9.9% from April 2016, and 102,442 registered Democrats, down 12.7%.

Westmoreland Democrats could not be reached.

Allegheny County Democratic Chairwoman Eileen Kelly said the party has been unable to get new voters signed up on college campuses, outside grocery stores and at other events as it traditionally has done in the past.

“Everything’s different,” Kelly said.

Kelly said committee members have been reaching out to people in the communities where they live to make sure they have registered and received their mail-in ballots, and also to ask if every other voting-age person in their household has too.

Members also have provided information online and over the phone.

“We’re doing whatever we can,” Kelly said.

DeMarco said the Allegheny County GOP has distributed weekly newsletters to people on its email distribution list, asking if they are registered to vote. Those newsletters go to about 8,000 people every Friday.

The committee has a link on its website that takes voters to Allegheny County’s elections website, which provides information on how to register. There also is a link on the committee’s website that voters can click on to request mail-in ballots.

“It’s obviously frustrating,” DeMarco said. “Everybody’s had to adjust.”

Pennsylvania’s primary originally had been scheduled for April 28, but was moved to the first Tuesday in June because of the pandemic. As of May 11, about 8.6 million people were registered to vote statewide.

People can call 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772) for more information.

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