According to Philly.com, the state of Pennsylvania saw a surge in new voter registrations in the weeks and days leading up to the deadline on Oct. 11. With registrations numbering in the hundreds of thousands over the last three weeks, even greater numbers came in during the final days, both online and on paper forms.
Penn students might not be surprised to hear this news, given the extensive mobilization efforts of active student groups ranging from Penn Leads the Vote to NextGen Climate.
With Pennsylvania’s status as a competitive swing state, this year’s election outcome might just come down to Pennsylvania. The preliminary data as of Tuesday shows that statewide Democratic voter registrations are down 2.6 percent from 2012 and now stand at 4,160,000. Meanwhile, Republican registrations are up 3.5 percent to a total of 3,240,000. In Philadelphia County alone, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a staggering margin, but both Democratic and Republican registrations are down, 2.5 percent and 7.4 percent respectively. Philadelphia County alone is home to some 834,900 Democrats and 122,800 Republicans.
This year’s high-profile races in Pennsylvania include the presidential contest, where the latest polls show Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by a small margin and Democratic nominee Katie McGinty and Republican nominee Pat Toomey neck-and-neck for Pennsylvania’s available Senate seat. Penn students heading to the polls on Nov. 8 will also be voting in races for a Philadelphia congressional seat and for Pennsylvania’s next state attorney general.
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