About 1.4 million more votes cast for Pa. governor nominees this year
Voters line up to vote at a polling place in Doylestown, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
So how big was turnout in Pennsylvania?
Here’s one measure:
In the governor’s race, more than 4.9 million people cast a vote for Democratic incumbent Tom Wolf, Republican challenger Scott Wagner or one of the other two candidates on the ballot. And there are still some ballots to be counted.
That 4.9 million figure, based on unofficial returns to the Pennsylvania Department of State, is larger than recent elections for governor. It’s about 1.4 million more votes than were cast for the gubernatorial nominees in 2014.
Here’s a look at vote totals for nominated candidates for governor.
2002: Nearly 3.6 million votes cast for governor.
2006: Nearly 4.1 million votes cast for governor.
2010: Nearly 4 million votes cast for governor.
2014: About 3.5 million votes cast for governor.
(The Department of State figures don’t include write-in votes. And the department’s online results don’t go back further than 2000.)
The Pennsylvania Department of State was still waiting on turnout figures for all counties late this week. But looking at total votes in the governor’s race gives an idea of just how much enthusiasm there was in this election compared to most mid-terms.
The turnout difference revealed itself in different ways. Take York County, for instance:
In 2014, Gov. Tom Corbett won 69,604 votes in York County — or 57.06 percent of the vote.
This year, Scott Wagner won 89,145 votes there, his home county. But, because of higher turnout, his share was only 53.59 percent. (Based on unofficial returns available now.)
— Ed Mahon (@edmahonreporter) November 7, 2018
The turnout was still less than the 2016 presidential election, when about 6.1 million votes were cast in Pennsylvania for presidential nominees.