Though stories of long lines and extended wait times to vote popped up on election night throughout the Philadelphia area, for the most part, overall fewer voters in the region turned out to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, than the 2020 presidential election.
In a hotly-contested race that ended with Republican former president Donald Trump being elected to return to the White House, fewer voters turned up at polling places in Philadelphia and in most of the city's surrounding counties.
Though, there were areas that saw an increase.
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Voter turnout in Philadelphia in 2024 election
For example, in Philadelphia, with about 99% of votes turned in by Wednesday evening -- though there are votes still outstanding -- The Philadelphia City Commissioners reported about 708,004 votes were cast, or about 63.35% of registered voters participated in Tuesday's election.
Officials told NBC10 that about another 25,000 main-in ballots were waiting to be tallied on Wednesday morning.
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In an interview with NBC10, Omar Sabir, chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners said that he was annoyed that more potential voters hadn't returned their mail-in ballots as of about 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.
"This is something that annoys me. Every single election where you have people who apply for vote by mail ballots, they don't vote in person," he said. "We mail it to them and tell them they don't return. I mean, I think it's a real big crisis. I mean, we're talking about 20,000, 30,000 votes. I mean, that can sway an election."
Overall, this year saw a significant drop in ballots though as about 749,317 registered voters participated in the last presidential election in 2020, according to the Pa. Department of State.
Turnout that year was at about 66% of all registered voters.
Voter turnout in surrounding Pennsylvania counties mostly down
Around the region, counties saw a drop in participation as well -- with thousands fewer voting in the counties closest to Philadelphia.
In Montgomery County, in 2020, 520,197 people voted for president, according to Pa.'s Dept. of State, but, on Tuesday, the county's board of elections claimed about 518,835 voters turned in ballots.
Though, officials in Montgomery County said that number could change as additional provisional ballots and military/overseas ballots have until November 11 to arrive.
This repeated similarly in Delaware County. Though election officials did not immediately return a request for comment, the county reported that 322,779 ballots were cast as part of Tuesday's presidential election while in, 2020, the Pa. Dept. of State said 327,931 ballots were returned.
The county noted it had received about 325,333 ballots -- the county did not explain the discrepancy in ballot totals between overall collected ballots and those counted in the race for president -- overall this week, making up about 76% of the county's 424,238 registered voters.
Near Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester counties were outliers.
In Bucks County, according to county officials, on Tuesday, about 396,496 voters returned ballots. That number represented about 80% of the county's 493,870 registered voters.
This total was several hundred more voters than the Department of State say voted in the 2020 presidential election. In that contest, officials said Bucks County voters returned 396,234 ballots.
A county official told NBC10 that Bucks County saw an increase in voter registration this past year and they expect the number could increase as several thousand provisional and overseas ballots have not yet been returned.
Chester County saw a more dramatic increase in voter turnout.
Here, while a number of ballots remain outstanding, including provisional ballots, county officials confirmed that this year's presidential election saw 321,580 voters participate. That's a hefty increase after 314,502 voters turned in ballots in the 2020 presidential election, according to Pennsylvania's Department of State.
Overall, throughout the entire state, fewer voters participated in Tuesday's election than in the presidential election in 2020.
This week, according to the Pa. Department of State, about 6,853,750 Pennsylvanians voted in the presidential election when about 6,915,283 voters throughout the Keystone State participated in the presidential election in 2020, when President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Pennsylvania.
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