BETHLEHEM, Pa. — More than 69,000 Lehigh Valley voters requested mail-in ballots ahead of Tuesday's general election, with nearly two-thirds of them going to registered Democrats.
Ever since Pennsylvania's General Assembly legalized no-excuse mail-in voting in 2019, Democrats have enjoyed an advantage among voters who don't physically go to the polls.
That trend has been influenced by President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated criticisms of mail-in voting. While he's scaled back those attacks — he actively encouraged people to vote by mail during a campaign stop in Allentown last year — thousands more Democrats take advantage of mail-in ballots than Republicans.
That pattern continued in Lehigh and Northampton counties and across Pennsylvania this election cycle, though the advantage isn't as stark as it once was.
Statewide, 1.1 million voters requested a mail-in ballot by last week's deadline.
That includes people who submitted a request through the state website and those who asked for a mail-in ballot "on demand" at their local county election office. The "on-demand" process proved popular among Republican voters last year and is the closest thing Pennsylvania allows for in-person early voting.
Statewide, 1.1 million voters requested a mail-in ballot by last week's deadline.
Of the 1.1 million, 74,2398 (65.3%) are registered Democrats, 28,3491 (25%) are registered Republicans and 11,0263 (9.7%) are either unaffiliated or independent. The breakdowns are similar locally.
In Northampton County, a total of 35,203 voters requested a mail-in ballot. Of those, 22,436 (63.7%) are registered Democrats, 8,533 (24.2%) are registered Republicans and 4,234 (12%) are either unaffiliated or independent.
Meanwhile, Lehigh County saw 33,941 residents request a mail-in ballot. Democrats comprised 21,565 (63.5%) of them, with 8,773 (25.8%) Republicans and 3,603 (10.6%) of unaffiliated and independent voters rounding out the rest.
Those partisan divides are in line with what election officials reported last year and reflect a sustained improvement for Republicans. In the 2023 municipal elections, Republicans accounted for just 19.4% of mail-in ballots.
Political organizers value mail-in ballots as they represent votes they don't have to chase down on Election Day. They also create a more convenient avenue to cast a ballot, granting people who normally work on Election Day or don't participate in elections more opportunities to vote.
Mail-in ballots must be in turned in by 8 p.m. on Election Day or they will not be counted.
Voters who have not yet mailed their ballots are advised not to at this point; mail carriers will not be able to reliably deliver them on time. Instead, voters should turn in their ballots at their county election office or at a designated drop box.
(See drop box locations in Lehigh and Northampton counties here.)
Ballots must be submitted inside their inner secrecy ballot and a signed and dated outer ballot. Voters who did not receive their requested mail-in ballot can cast a provisional ballot at their polling place. These votes will be tallied once election officials confirm they did not receive that voter's mail-in ballot.
