Here’s how historic Centre County’s voter turnout was, and other notable numbers
More Centre County voters cast their ballots for last week’s General Election — 78,091 — than ever before in county history, edging out 2016’s historic voter turnout (77,700) by several hundred.
Nearly seven in 10 registered voters in Centre County — 69.67% — also turned out to vote, the highest turnout rate since 2008 (71.95%), according to unofficial data posted Tuesday on the county’s website.
“One of the things that I said prior to the election, and this is going back weeks ago, is we wanted there to be more opportunities for people to vote — drop boxes, in-person early voting, mail-in voting — and by having more paths and opportunities to vote, the chorus of American democracy sounds so much more beautiful,” Centre County Commissioner Mike Pipe said. “So we now have the largest chorus ever.
“And we’re happy to report it’s a beautiful sound.”
The numbers will remain unofficial until as late as Nov. 23, the current deadline for certification. But Tuesday was the final day for county boards to receive military and overseas absentee ballots, and Centre County officials said fewer than 150 uncounted ballots remained.
Those ballots, which involved 11 “naked” ballots and another 138 mail-in/absentee ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and received between Nov. 4-6, are still awaiting final guidance from the state — and the courts — on whether they should be included. They have been segregated and are not currently included in the unofficial counts, Pipe said.
Based on the results, compared to the past two presidential elections, Centre County turned a darker shade of blue this year, with the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden-Kamala Harris outpacing Republican incumbents Donald Trump-Mike Pence by 3,683 county votes (40,054 to 36,371). That’s a wider margin than 2016 (1,814) and 2012 (175) — but not 2008 (8,958).
Centre County followed the same pattern as much of Pennsylvania, which overall saw Trump take a big Election Day lead before absentee and mail-in votes overturned it in the end. Trump won the Election Day vote in the county by more than a 2-to-1 margin (29,175 to 14,449) while Biden won the absentee/mail-in vote by more than a 3-to-1 margin (25,307 to 6,889). Trump also had more provisional ballots cast in his favor (307) than Biden (298).
Libertarian Jo Jorgensen finished with 1,065 votes in the county — 672 on Election Day, 379 with absentee and mail-in votes and 14 on provisional ballots. Write-ins accounted for another 398 votes.
Here’s a look at some of the notable county turnouts and vote counts by precinct:
- Precinct 81 (Taylor) saw the most Trump support, based on the percentage of the vote that went to the Republican. Some 80.4% of voters here picked Trump out of the 526 ballots cast.
- Precinct 16 (State College North) saw the most Biden support, based on the percentage of the vote that went to the Democrat. Some 82.4% picked Biden out of the 678 votes cast.
- Precinct 82 (Union) saw the biggest disparity in votes favoring Trump over Biden, with 555 more Trump votes than Biden votes. Trump received 723 votes, Biden earned 168, Jorgensen had five, and write-ins totaled two.
- Precinct 24 (Penn State) saw the biggest disparity in votes favoring Biden over Trump, with 1,036 more Biden votes than Trump votes. Biden received 1,651 votes, Trump earned 615, Jorgensen had 29, and write-ins totaled 14.
- Numerous precincts broke 80% turnout. The county precinct with the highest turnout was Precinct 81 (Taylor), which saw a 90.22% voter turnout. Some 526 voters of the 583 registered cast a ballot with Trump receiving 423 votes and Biden getting 100.
- Only a handful of precincts failed to register a 50% turnout. On paper, the county precinct with the lowest turnout was Precinct 24 (Penn State), which saw 24.4% of registered voters cast a ballot. Only 2,310 ballots were cast from 9,469 registered voters — although Greg Stewart, chair of the Centre County Democratic Committee, noted that the number of registered voters was almost certainly inflated. If students move elsewhere after graduation and don’t register to vote in another Pennsylvania community, they remain on the county rolls for years until they’re considered inactive and removed. “We believe student turnout was similar to other precincts in Centre,” Stewart added.
Pennsylvania is scheduled to have its votes certified by Nov. 23. States are then scheduled to choose their electors for the Electoral College by Dec. 8, and the electors are scheduled to formally vote Dec. 14.
The electoral results are formally counted Jan. 6, and Inauguration Day is Jan. 20.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 2:18 PM.
