Last week I looked at the national numbers for the 2024 election. This week a different pattern emerged in the Pennsylvania election numbers. Nationally turnout was lower but in Pennsylvania it was slightly higher. The table below shows the vote totals from 2024 overall and for each ballot type from the PA Dept of State website.
2024 | Election day | Mail-In | Provisional | Total |
| KAMALA D HARRIS (D) | 2,119,033 | 1,263,611 | 39,544 | 3,422,944 |
| DONALD J TRUMP (R) | 2,850,716 | 664,982 | 27,200 | 3,543,243 |
| CHASE OLIVER (L) | 25,137 | 7,890 | 283 | 33,317 |
| JILL STEIN (G) | 24,250 | 9,723 | 553 | 34,538 |
Donald Trump won the state by 120,299 votes. He also won the vote on election day by 731,683 votes. Harris won the mail-in vote by 598,629 votes and the provisional vote by 12,344. Next it is helpful to compare these numbers to the 2020 vote totals.
Comparing 2024 to 2020 Numbers
According to the University of Florida’s voter turnout database, Pennsylvania’s turnout rate was 71.43% in 2024 which was above the national rate of 63.78%. In 2020 the voter turnout rate for Pennsylvania was 69.93%. This year 7,034,042 people voted for one of the 4 candidates while in 2020, 6,915,283 voted for one of the 3 candidates on the ballot. There was no Green Party candidate on the ballot in 2020.
| 2020 | Election Day | Mail-In | Provisional | Total |
| BIDEN, JOSEPH ROBINETTE JR (D) | 1,409,341 | 1,995,720 | 53,168 | 3,458,229 |
| TRUMP, DONALD J. (R) | 2,731,230 | 595,570 | 50,874 | 3,377,674 |
| JORGENSEN, JO (L) | 53,318 | 24,785 | 1,277 | 79,380 |
The table above shows the vote totals for 2020. Trump received 165,569 more votes than in 2020 overall. Harris received 35,285 fewer votes than Biden did in 2020. The Libertarian candidate received 46,063 fewer votes in 2024 than in 2020.
On election day Trump received 165,569 more votes while Harris received 709,692 more votes than in 2020. For mail in votes, Trump received 69,412 more votes than last time while Harris received 732,109 fewer votes than Biden in 2020. For provisional votes, Trump received 23,674 fewer votes while Harris received 11,330 fewer votes than in 2020.
PA U.S. Senate Race
Looking at the hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, there is no previous race to compare it to. Overall, Bob Casey lost by 15,144 votes to David McCormick which was closer than the Presidential race. A total of 6,962,978 voted for one of the 5 candidates in the race which is 71,064 fewer than in the Presidential in the state. Bob Casey received 38,854 fewer votes than Harris did. Sen. John Fetterman blamed the Green party candidate for Casey’s loss.
Sen. John Fetterman blamed the Green party candidate for Casey’s loss because her vote total (66,382) was higher than the margin of victory. However the right leaning Libertarian candidate received 89,651 votes and the Constitutional candidate received 23,671 votes. Both right leaning candidates also received more votes than McCormick’s margin of victory.