PA sees growing numbers of voters for upcoming election

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — In the lead-up to the historic presidential election, 28/22 News is taking a look at voter registration in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

As of July 22, there are more registered Democratic voters than Republicans in Pennsylvania with a 360,982 difference.

With the presidential election just around the corner, a lot of eyes are on the state of Pennsylvania, known as a swing state, which currently has over 8,000,000 registered voters.

The highest age group of registered voters is the 55-64 group, making up roughly 17% of the votes.

In that group, 16% are registered as Democrats, and 20% as Republicans.

The lowest registered age group is 18-24 with roughly 8% of the votes. 8% of that as Democrat and 7% as Republican.

In Lackawanna County, overall, 144,861 residents are registered to vote.

The majority are Democrats with 77,765 registered voters. 48,884 are registered as Republicans.

The 55-64 age group still has the highest number of voters and the 18-24 group has the lowest.

Though the younger generations like Gen-Z are on the lower side, having a younger candidate on the ballot can energize them to get out and vote.

“The change in the Democratic candidate to be what we think is the presumptive nominee in Kamala Harris, with the age difference and also again I think JD Vance addition to the ticket to the Republican party, I think in general that is going to animate younger voters,” said University of Scranton Adjunct Political Science Professor Julie Cohen.

With Biden no longer on the ticket, it’s a whole new match-up.

“Now there’s been this mix-up, so I think that is going to be motivating, I think that it’s a new energy that’s kind of coming around the entire race and I think ultimately that’s a good thing for democracy because we need people to be engaged, we need people to exercise their right to vote,” Cohen explained.

As times are changing, while having the older generations’ support is important, so is securing the younger support.

“The demographic shift that you were talking about does make the younger voters a little more important than possibly in the past where you could rely on that older demographic, one of the things we find as an institution of higher ed, this is the first time they’re voting!” Cohen continued.

So far, just this week, Lackawanna County has seen 70 new voter registrations: 48 Democrats and 22 Republicans.

The deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania for the 2024 election is on October 21.

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