Voter Turnout Predicted To Be Low, As Party Leaders Push Importance Of Judicial Race
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Tuesday is Election Day, but political experts say many people won't bother to vote.
There are 8.7 million registered voters in Pennsylvania, and nearly seven million of them voted a year ago for president. This year, maybe three million will vote.
"It will be a very low turnout election, partly because these off-year elections tend to be low turnout anyway. And the other piece of it is, a lot of Americans are just exhausted by politics right now," University of Pittsburgh professor Kristin Kanthak said.
Kanthak, a political science professor, is predicting a turnout of under 30 percent, compared to 79 percent last year. Her colleague, professor Chris Bonneau, is a little more optimistic.
"Higher than normal for this kind of election just because there's a lot of interest in races, particularly at the school board level throughout the state," Bonneau said.
School board issues like opening schools, masking kids and curriculum on race and diversity, says Bonneau, could spike turnout to 35 percent. But most won't vote -- Kanthan says when voters stay home, here's who will vote.
"The richer people, the people who haven't moved very much, who've lived in the same house for a long time, older people, people with more education," the professor said.
Both state party leaders are focused on the judicial races on the ballot. Democrat Nancy Patton Mills said Donald Trump's attempt to overturn Pennsylvania's election is a civics lesson on why Democrats should be judges.
"He challenged at least 30 times and lost every case," the chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party said. "Sometimes, politicians use the courts for their advantage. We want the courts to be representative of the people."
Lawrence Tabas, chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said the state needs Republican judges to curtail Governor Tom Wolf's actions during the pandemic.
"The governor acted like he was the successor to King George III, and the courts have helped him in that process," Tabas said.