A general election was held in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania on November 3, 2020.[1] The office of the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth oversees the election process, including voting and vote counting.
To vote by mail, registered Pennsylvania voters had to request a ballot by October 27, 2020. As of early October some 2,568,084 voters requested mail ballots.
On October 29, 2019, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed Act 77 by a vote of 138–61.[2] Later that day, the Pennsylvania State Senate passed Act 77 by a vote of 35–14.[3] Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 77 into law two days later.[4] The law enacted numerous changes to Pennsylvania's election code. Voters were allowed to request a mail-in ballot without providing a reason.[4] A person could register to vote up to 15 days before an election and vote in that election, instead of the previous 30-day period.[4] It said that mail-in ballots and absentee ballots would be valid if received by 8 p.m. on election day.[4] The law eliminated the option of pushing one button to vote for all candidates of the same party, called straight-ticket voting; instead, a voter would need to select each candidate in order to vote the same way.[4] The law said the state would cover up to 60percent of the cost for counties to replace their voting machines with systems that had voter-verifiable paper.[4] Governor Wolf described the changes as the "most significant improvement to Pennsylvania’s elections in more than 80 years".[5]
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania State Senate both unanimously passed Act 12 on March 25, 2020,[6] [7] and Gov. Wolf signed it into law two days later.[8] Act 12 delayed the primary election from April 28 to June 2. Act 12 also allowed counties to begin counting ballots at 7 a.m. on election day rather than being required to wait until 8 p.m. to do so.[9]
See main article: 2020 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania had 20 electoral votes in the Electoral College.[10] Incumbent Republican Donald Trump won the state in 2016 with 48.2% of the vote.
See main article: 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania. Voters in Pennsylvania elected 18 candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the 18 congressional districts.[11]
| District 1 | Christina Finello | Brian Fitzpatrick, incumbent | Steve Scheetz (write-in) | ||
| District 2 | Brendan Boyle, incumbent | David Torres | |||
| District 3 | Dwight Evans, incumbent | Michael Harvey | |||
| District 4 | Madeleine Dean, incumbent | Kathy Bernette | Joe Tarshish (write-in) | ||
| District 5 | Mary Gay Scanlon, incumbent | Dasha Pruett | |||
| District 6 | Chrissy Houlahan, incumbent | John Emmons | John H. McHugh (write-in) | ||
| District 7 | Susan Wild, incumbent | Lisa Scheller | Anthony Sayegh (write-in) | ||
| District 8 | Matt Cartwright, incumbent | Jim Bognet | |||
| District 9 | Gary Wegman | Dan Meuser, incumbent | |||
| District 10 | Eugene DePasquale | Scott Perry, incumbent | |||
| District 11 | Sarah Hammond | Lloyd Smucker, incumbent | |||
| District 12 | Lee Griffin | Fred Keller, incumbent | Elizabeth Terwilliger (write-in) | ||
| District 13 | Todd Rowley | John Joyce, incumbent | |||
| District 14 | William Marx | Guy Reschenthaler, incumbent | |||
| District 15 | Robert Williams Ronnie Ray Jenkins (write-in) | Glenn Thompson, incumbent | |||
| District 16 | Kristy Gnibus | Mike Kelly, incumbent | |||
| District 17 | Conor Lamb, incumbent | Sean Parnell | |||
| District 18 | Michael Doyle, incumbent | Luke Negron | Donald Nevills (write-in) Daniel Vayda (write-in) |
Three executive offices were up for election in Pennsylvania's general election: auditor general, attorney general, and treasurer.[12]
See main article: 2020 Pennsylvania Attorney General election. Incumbent Democratic attorney general Josh Shapiro ran for re-election to a second term. He was first elected in 2016 with 51.4% of the vote.
See main article: 2020 Pennsylvania State Treasurer election. Incumbent Democratic treasurer Joe Torsella ran for re-election to a second term. He was first elected in 2016 with 50.7% of the vote. He lost re-election to businesswoman and retired U.S. Army Colonel Stacy Garrity.
See main article: 2020 Pennsylvania Auditor General election. Incumbent Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale was term-limited and ineligible to seek a third consecutive term. He was re-elected in 2016 with 50.0% of the vote. Dauphin County controller Timothy DeFoor won the election against former Philadelphia deputy mayor Nina Ahmad.
See main article: 2020 Pennsylvania Senate election. 25 of 50 seats (odd-numbered districts) in the Pennsylvania Senate were up for election in Pennsylvania's general election.[13]
A special election was also held on January 14 in the 48th senatorial district after the resignation of Republican senator Mike Folmer.
See main article: 2020 Pennsylvania House of Representatives election. All 203 seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives were up for election in the general election.[14]
Special elections were held for the 8th, 18th, 58th, and 190th districts prior to the general election.
There were no statewide ballot measures up for election in this general election; however, there were local ballot measures in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.[15]