“Joe Biden with supporters” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
On Nov. 9, Joe Biden was announced as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. With millions of ballots cast across the country, the Biden/Harris duo was pushed across the finish line largely in part by Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes. In Chester County, Biden won with 58% of the vote — up 5% from Clinton’s 52% in the 2016 election. Voter turnout across Chester County increased significantly in the recent election, going from 266,637 in 2016 to 309,424 in 2020.
The increase in voter turnout was not limited to just Chester Country but rather was a nationwide occurrence. The mass number of mail-in and absentee ballots had a large impact on Biden’s winning numbers towards the end of the count — the lean towards in-person votes were large and favored the Democrats. Pennsylvania received more than 2.5 million mail-in and absentee ballots, which means that 81% of the state voters who were sent ballots returned them: more than 1.6 million of those ballots were from registered Democrats, 586,000 were from Republicans and 278,000 were from independents or third party voters.
On Nov. 8, Biden gave a victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware, addressing a large crowd of supporters. Emily Dawson, a third-year Psychology major at West Chester University, was among the throng.
“It was just such a positive event. There were kids standing on cars smiling and cheering as they watched the screens, and everyone in the crowd just seemed relieved. It was like they were celebrating a lack of worry and hate for the first evening in a while,” she said.
Though the 2020 election has maintained focus on the contentious presidential race, it has also encompassed a number of local races. In Chester County, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan won re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives by 12 points. State Rep. Carolyn Committa won a seat in the 19th District of the Pennsylvania State Senate District by 14 points. West Chester Mayor Dianne Herrin won the 156th District Legislative race by 11 points and will now be appointed as Pennsylvania State Representative, replacing the exiting Carolyn Commita. West Chester can expect a mayoral race in the near future.
This seemingly musical-chairs style election is affected by a unique feature of Chester County. 2020 is not the first time such an occurrence has been seen, with Committa having held the mayoral position prior to Herrin. The mayoral and representative running populations, or the population of voters that will be represented by both positions, bear certain similarities. The most prominent of these is that whereas the mayoral position is voted on by residents of West Chester, that same population makes up the majority of voters for the representative seat.
Keeping up with surrounding towns, John Kane, a Democrat running for the Ninth District of the Pennsylvania State Senate, appears to be ahead of Republican incumbent Tom Killian by around 400 votes. Though the race doesn’t involve West Chester, the Ninth District includes a large portion of Chester County. Polls say that Democrat Christina Sappey will win re-election as Pennsylvania State Representative for the 158th District Legislative — she’s currently leading by less than 300 votes.
The majority-blue elections and re-elections across the county reflect a similar increase in blue voters that was seen in both the 2016 and 2018 elections. Chester favored Clinton in 2016 and was a part of the blue wave seen in the congressional elections of 2018. This trend is not only due to an increase in voter turnout, but additionally an increase in voter registration. The 2020 primary election saw the number of registered Democratic voters surpass the number of Republican voters for the first time.
As mail-in ballots continue to be counted and results are finalized, Chester County appears to have made waves on a national level. For West Chester, the upcoming mayoral race will prove another opportunity for voters to show up to the polls.
Caroline Helms is a second-year English major with minors in Political Science and Journalism. CH923631@wcupa.edu
Emma Bickerstaffe is a fourth-year English Writings major with a minor in Journalism. EB891492@wcupa.edu
Sources:
https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/General/CountyResults?countyName=Chester&ElectionID=undefined&ElectionType=G&IsActive=undefined
https://www.unionvilletimes.com/?p=47126
https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/pennsylvania/