Erie County sees 25% voter turnout for Tuesday's primary. How that compares to recent years.

Erie County saw 25% voter turnout for Tuesday's primary, an election that featured few local marquee races and a presidential contest that was essentially a done deal in a closed primary.

"I was hoping for (turnout in) the low 20s," said Erie County Clerk Karen Chillcott, who oversees elections in the county. "I think that's realistic. The (presidential) nominees had already been decided."

Pennsylvania is one of the 10 states nationwide that conducts closed primaries, which means you must be a registered member of a major party to participate. The Nov. 5 general election will almost certainly see a much larger turnout.

The unofficial turnout data factors in mail-in ballots.

According to county officials, 19,913 mail-in ballots were requested by Erie County voters for Tuesday’s election. As of Wednesday morning, 15,996 of those, or 80%, had been counted.

Turnout breakdown

According to unofficial results from the Erie County Board of Elections, 42,847 votes were cast in Tuesday's primary, either by mail or at polling sites countywide.

That includes 25,154 votes cast by Democrats — 12,550 of those by mail and 12,604 via in-person voting.

There are 79,992 registered Democrats in Erie County. That means the overall Democratic turnout was 31%.

Unofficial results show that Republicans on Tuesday cast 17,673 total votes— 14,227 in person and 3,446 by mail. GOP turnout was 26%.

"I think there were people who weren't as motivated to come out," Chillcott said. She also noted that's not unusual in primaries, especially in a presidential election year.

"We're going to see it heat up pretty quickly for the fall," Chillcott said. "There's always a pretty significant difference between a primary and a general election."

For example, according to county records, the 2020 primary saw 36% voter turnout. But the November election, which saw Democrat Joe Biden defeat incumbent Republican Donald Trump in the race for president, the countywide turnout was 68%.

How Tuesday's turnout compares with other recent primaries

Erie County's 2023 primary saw total turnout of 24%, with nearly 42,000 total votes cast. The November 2023 general election saw countywide voter turnout of 35%.

Here are other Erie County primary turnout totals from recent years:

• 2022: 31%
• 2021: 29%
• 2020: 36%
• 2019: 30%
• 2018: 22%

The lowest primary turnout occurred in 1998, when just 13 percent of Erie County’s registered voters cast ballots.

Erie County's record high turnout for a November election came in 1992, when 87% of the county's registered voters cast ballots and President Bill Clinton won a first term.

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X at @ETNflowers.