Higher-than-expected election turnout boosted by judicial race, officials say

Political leaders on attribute a higher-than-expected voter turnout for Tuesday’s general election to the hotly contested state judicial retention vote.

Turnout in Westmoreland County, which featured few contested local races, reached 42%. County election officials had initially predicted turnout would be about 30%. In neighboring Allegheny County, where the Pittsburgh mayoral race topped the ballot, turnout was nearly 45% in the off-year election that has traditionally seen fewer voters cast ballots.

Across Pennsylvania, political observers said turnout appeared larger than expected for off-year races largely because of the battle over the retention of three Democratic Supreme Court justices to new 10-year terms. Republican backers spent millions lobbying voters to oust the judges.

“It wasn’t just in Westmoreland County, it was everywhere,” said Michelle McFall, chairwoman of the county’s Democratic Committee. “MAGA gave us this issue to protect our courts. The message was simple, and it gave us something to fight for.”

Westmoreland County Republican Committee Chairman Bill Bretz agreed that the judicial retention question drew out voters in what traditionally has been a low-turnout municipal election, one that typically sees about 30% to 35% of registered voters participate.

He cautioned, however, that while turnout was higher than anticipated, it fell far short of the numbers of voters who cast ballots during the last presidential election. Turnout last November topped 83% in Westmoreland County. Turnout in the 2023 municipal election in 2023, which featured the race for county commissioner, was 39% and was just 36% in 2021.

“I don’t want to celebrate 42%. What about the other 58% when it is so easy now to cast a ballot?” Bretz said.

Allegheny turnout

In Allegheny County, more than 407,000 voters cast ballots, a number that significantly exceeded the last two off-year elections. Turnout in 2023, which featured a competitive race for county executive, was 42%, when just more than 375,000 county residents cast ballots. Turnout reached just 33% for the 2021 municipal election.

“I was guessing it would be about 300,000,” Allegheny County Democratic Committee Chairman Sam Hens-Greco said Thursday of turnout for this year’s election.

Jason Richey, chairman of Allegheny County’s Republican Committee, said he doesn’t believe the judicial retention was the major reason for the turnout spike and ascribed the higher number of voters to federal politics and the ongoing government shutdown. He said he was surprised by both the number of voters who cast ballots and the results that overwhelmingly favored Democrats.

“People are very unhappy,” Richey said. “People saw their health insurance going up, they sawtheir SNAP benefits go away and that motivated people to send a message. In my years in politics, I’ve seen that intervening issues can have an overwhelming impact on elections when people get emotional.”

Hens-Greco said the Democratic party moved into overdrive last June to lay the groundwork see a surge in mail-in voting for a general election that was short on high-profile races at the top of the ticket, other than the Supreme Court retention question.

Hens-Greco said Democratic voters were urged not only to support state and local judicial candidates as well as candidates for county council and other local offices, but also to use their vote to show discontentment voters have with the Trump administration and the actions of the federal government.

“Our message was it’s great to protest, but here’s the moment to really send that message,” Hens-Greco said.