BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Voters who cast mail-in ballots or who will enter polling places Tuesday to participate in the 2023 municipal primary election will be part of a select group.
That’s because primary election participation in the United States is consistently lower than general election turnout, especially for local races.
It can seem like a real oddity considering these elections — for things like mayor, city council, county commissioners and school board members — truly affect your day-to-day life.
Still, local turnout has been particularly bruising over the years.
- Lehigh Valley voters will have their pick of candidates across dozens of municipal races Tuesday, but the vast majority probably won't bother to vote
- The casting of lots is part of state election law and the final step in the process to get ready for primary elections
- Blank ballots can also be indicators of a lack of information, or stand as protest votes
In the 2009 municipal primary, for example, turnout in Lehigh County was just 10.63% (or 22,596 votes out of 221,922 eligible registered voters). Northampton County didn’t fare much better that year, with turnout at 13.64%.
The result, the New York Times said in this 2018 op-ed, is that “an extraordinarily unrepresentative set of residents determines how local governments distribute services and spend the [trillions] that local governments control.”
In the Lehigh Valley’s last municipal primary in 2021, turnout in Lehigh County was 23% and in Northampton County it was 21%.
If these facts surprise you, here are some other things you may not know about how our local elections are run:
The casting of lots
The casting of lots is part of state election law and is the final step in the process to get ready for primary elections.
Its purpose is to determine the position of names on the primary ballots, meaning names do not appear alphabetically, nor by who submitted their paperwork first.
That gives every candidate an equal chance of where their name appears on the ballot, which can be helpful if the field is large (such as this year’s Parkland School Board race, which includes 14 candidates vying for six seats).
Every Pennsylvania county elections board cast lots in different ways to randomize how names appear on the ballot. (In Armstrong County, they go by the drawing of ping pong balls. And a jug and some numbered balls decided a deadlocked council election in a rural Pennsylvania town’s council race in 2021).
Typically, candidates show up to draw a number, and the candidate who draws the lowest number has his or her name appear first on the ballot. But it remains up for debate if it’s an advantage or not.
Blank ballots
During elections, so-called protest votes can take on different forms. That includes the casting of blank ballots, or ballots with no markings on them.
Blank ballots can also be indicators of a lack of information, and, according to research, occur more frequently in areas with higher levels of illiteracy or limited language competency.
In our last municipal primary, there were 23 blank ballots cast in Northampton County (22 on Election Day and one by mail). In Lehigh County, there were 41 blank ballots cast (39 on Election Day and two by mail).
In larger races, you might see them in bigger numbers.
Of the more than 3.5 million votes cast in last year’s U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, 2,694 people picked neither candidate. Instead, they left their ballots blank.
No stickers allowed
In Lehigh County, you get a paper ballot to cast your vote on Election Day.
It gets fed into a “secure tabulator” (voting machine) and a “thank you for voting” message appears.
But there’s a rule – no stickers on the ballots.
“No stickers can be used for write-in candidates on paper ballots,” the county’s website says. “The name of the candidate associated with found stickers on or in scanners will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. NO EXCEPTIONS.”
The rule comes from amendments to the state election code in 2019, known as Act 77, and applies to all districts in which paper ballots or ballot cards are electronically tabulated.
The Pennsylvania Election Code, passed in 1937, originally allowed for stickers to be placed on ballots. Now, they’re likely to cause a machine to jam or may be removed during the scanning process. For that reason, they’re a big no-no.
But don’t worry. If you do your civic duty and vote at your polling place Tuesday you’ll still get your “I voted” sticker.
