Election 2025: Voter turnout spikes across Mon Valley communities

Tuesday’s contest saw higher turnout statewide than the typical municipal election.

Mon Valley voters Tuesday raised the bar for turnout in a municipal election, as highly contested school board races and a state Supreme Court retention race drove voters to the polls.

With Tuesday’s municipal elections having a lot of people coming out to vote more than May’s primary, many leaders in Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties noticed the spike.

Washington and Westmoreland counties

For Tuesday’s general election, Washington County had a voter turnout of 42.49% with 61,693 votes cast out of 145,182 registered voters. Back in May’s primary, the county had a voter turnout total of 19.95%.

In Westmoreland County, voter turnout was 42.35%, as 106,202 votes were cast out of 250,768 registered voters.

According to state data, Washington County has 53,080 registered Democrats, 72,737 registered Republicans, 15,467 registered voters with no affiliation and 3,805 other voters.

Westmoreland has 87,131 registered Democrats, 130,834 registered Republicans, 23,052 registered voters with no affiliation and 9,307 other voters.

The Washington County Board of Elections Office is responsible for registering individuals to vote and maintaining the database of all registered voters in Washington County, according to the county website.

No representatives from either Washington or Westmoreland counties could be reached as of press time Wednesday to discuss voter turnout.

Allegheny County

Allegheny County had a voter turnout of 44.64%, with 407,657 votes cast out of 913,202 registered voters. Back in May’s primary, the county had a voter turnout total of 25.2%.

According to state data, the county has 501,178 registered Democrats, 264,769 registered Republicans, 109,583 registered voters with no affiliation and 37,535 other voters.

Data shows ballots sent to Allegheny County registered Democrats had a return rate of 81%, Republicans had a return rate of 77% and other voters had a return rate of 64%.

Scott Friedman with the county election bureau said there has been a higher number of voter turnout for this election. He said final turnouts will be updated on the county’s election website once all final numbers are in.

In Allegheny County, 146,709 mail-in ballots were approved, 145,975 mail-in ballots were sent and 114,830 mail-in ballots were returned. The majority of mail-ins were Democrats.

Currently at the top of the voter turnout with around 70.51% is Pittsburgh’s Ward 11 District 10, according to our news partners at WTAE, which covers parts of the Highland Park neighborhood. Of the 573 voters, 404 ballots were cast, and more than 400 precincts in the county reported over 50% turnout.

There are 1,320 precincts that have reported their numbers with seven more still outstanding in addition to provisional, military and overseas ballots. Allegheny County officials anticipate the voter turnout to increase further once those votes are counted.

County Director of Communications Abigail Gardner said there are still more votes to count since there are seven precincts that didn’t report yesterday, so they won’t know the turnout number for the next couple weeks.

However, the voter turnout of what has come in through the county is 12% higher than four years ago and double from 10 years ago, according to Gardner.

“It was much higher. We heard that other communities were having higher turnouts, so we can’t be alone in that result,” Gardner said. “There was certainly more turnout and other things that you might not have seen in previous elections that might have gotten some people’s attention.

“It seems like people were just interested in voting,” she added. “Compared to what you would see in a midterm year or a presidential year, there was more campaigning, advertising and media coverage than what we have seen. To have over 40% turnout, it seems like a lot more people are interested than not.”

Fayette County

Fayette County saw a 38.94% voter turnout, with 30,946 votes cast out of 79,467 registered voters.

According to state data, the county has 29,818 registered Democrats, 41,102 registered Republicans, 6,445 registered voters with no affiliation and 2,091 other voters.

In accordance with the reporting requirements of Act 88 of 2022, Fayette County received a total of 7,924 mail-in and absentee ballots by 8 p.m. Tuesday.

According to the Fayette County Election Bureau, officials discovered that the Department of State had mistakenly supplied electronic voter data that was from the 2024 voter file, officials said.

The Department of State called it “human error,” but otherwise didn’t say how it would prevent the error in the future.

Voters arriving at the polls, in some cases, found that the county’s electronic poll books listed them as having already voted. Some voters say they have received an advisory that said they already voted by mail and returned their ballot, and Commissioner Scott Dunn told our news partners at WTAE that he was one of them “As I voted in my Dunbar Borough precinct, the check in on the poll pad said that I had already returned my mail-in ballot, which I did not vote by mail this year, and so it was it was quite concerning because you start thinking of all kinds of things running through your head,” Dunn said.

Dunn said he voted using a provisional ballot at his polling location, then officials contacted the state and found the mistake. Dunn added that all 77 polling places immediately switched to their backup paper books, which are accurate.

“The Department is aware that a data transfer error resulted in Fayette County’s electronic poll books displaying outdated information,” the Pennsylvania Department of State said in a release. “All paper poll books contain accurate records, and county officials have contacted polling places impacted by this error and directed them to switch to paper poll books. Voting continues in those precincts uninterrupted.”

“They sent us the list of voters for November 2024, instead of November 2025,” Designee for elections in the county Marybeth Kuznik said. “It looked like the correct file, but when many of them started to vote, it said they had already voted, and they did…a year ago. We have a backup paper poll book, and the ones that already voted, they had to do a provisional ballot, and they will be counted.”

Tie in Belle Vernon Borough

In Belle Vernon Borough, Fayette County, where there is a tie for a council seat, Kuznik said the provisional ballots coming in might break the tie, along with other overseas ballots/mail-in ballots.

If the tie is not broken, Kuznik said in every county, the candidates receiving the tie vote shall cast lots before the county board.

In Fayette County, they have a bucket of balls with numbers. Each candidate can do it in person or in writing, a ball is pulled, and whoever gets the lowest ball gets the seat, Kuznik said.

According to Kuznik, the ballot incident affected voter turnout since they are waiting on provisional ballots to come back, but that there was still a big turnout on Tuesday – with votes jumping up from around 7,000 votes for statewide judges back in May to over 12,000 Tuesday.

“It looks like we are still high for turnout, and it was a nice day outside yesterday, so people wanted to come out,” Kuznik said. “There seems to be a lot more interest in the municipal race than the primary, and they are all important. I always encourage people to vote in these local elections because it affects your day to day life.”