{"id":198333,"date":"2026-05-20T23:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/198333\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:25:12","slug":"erie-county-reports-unexpectedly-low-mid-term-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/198333\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie County reports unexpectedly low mid-term turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 2026 primary election results are in, and this year\u2019s numbers don\u2019t show high voter turnout across the county.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Of about 175,000 registered voters in Erie County, just over 36,000 cast their ballot \u2014 which is under 21% of voters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/pennsylvania-politics\/2026-primary-election\/2026-pennsylvania-primary-election-results\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:2026 Pennsylvania Primary Election Results;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;2026 Pennsylvania Primary Election Results&quot;}\"> 2026 Pennsylvania Primary Election Results <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Erie County Director of Elections said those numbers were unexpectedly low, and voter turnout hasn\u2019t been that low in a primary election in years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She says a lack of contested races may have led to the low turnout, but now the Department of Elections is switching gears to the adjudication process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/harborcreek-high-school-hosts-annual-military-signing-day\/?ipid=promo-link-block2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Harborcreek High School hosts annual Military Signing Day;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Harborcreek High School hosts annual Military Signing Day&quot;}\"> Harborcreek High School hosts annual Military Signing Day <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWhen you scan your ballots at the poll, if there\u2019s a write-in vote or an ambiguous mark on the ballot, then those images of the ballots have to be looked at manually to determine the voter\u2019s intent, so that is what we\u2019re doing today,\u201d said Tonia Fernandez, the Erie County Director of Elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fernandez said voters who submitted a mail-in ballot with an unverified ID have been sent a letter, and they will have to return that letter by next Tuesday to make sure their vote is counted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 primary election results are in, and this year\u2019s numbers don\u2019t show high voter turnout across the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[88031,136,142,138,137,88032,78697,7573],"class_list":["post-198333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-department-of-elections","tag-erie","tag-erie-county","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-primary-election-results","tag-registered-voters","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}