Philly suburbs record highest off-year voter turnout since 2011

Pennsylvania’s status as a premier battleground state usually forces it under the microscope. Time and time again, Philadelphia’s suburbs have proven to be a bellwether for national politics.

This year, even without a presidential, gubernatorial or congressional race on the ballot, voters in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties showed up in droves.

“I think this election shows that people care about local power,” Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija said. “They understand the importance of local leadership and how the positions that candidates were running for in this election really do matter to people’s lives.”

The highest profile races in Pennsylvania were statewide retention votes on three state Supreme Court justices — yet Philadelphia’s collar counties saw their highest voter turnout for an off-year election cycle dating back to 2011.

Montgomery County’s voter turnout measured nearly 50%, more than 7 percentage points higher than the next highest voter turnout for an off-year election, in 2023.

In Bucks County, where Democrats swept all five row office contests, voter turnout also came in at nearly 50%, with 49.6% of registered voters casting a ballot. That’s nearly 7 percentage points more than the last off-year election turnout, in 2023.

Chester and Delaware counties each bested their previous highs for voter turnout in an off-year election, tallying 47.73% and 45.59%, respectively.

Was it judges, a testament to local leadership or a referendum on Trump?

Delaware County GOP Chair Frank Agovino said he witnessed the voter surge with his own eyes.

“You just saw the traffic,” Agovino said. “It was very, very high and folks working the polls were commenting, especially people that have been around for a long time, that they hadn’t seen anything like this in quite some time.”

Republicans used to have a tight grip on the county’s elected office. But, ever since Democrats took control of Delaware County Council in 2019 for the first time since the Civil War, the GOP has been shut out.

And with Democrats holding a 60,000-voter advantage in registration totals, Tuesday proved to be no different. Democrats maintained sole control of County Council — and picked up several local offices as well.

Agovino believes the GOP put forward a better local slate focused on addressing rising taxes and quelling unnecessary spending, but he said Democratic voters were motivated by more than just local politics.

“The statewide retention issue I don’t think really worked out for Republicans,” Agovino said. “I think a lot of it actually ginned up the Democrat base. I think it put abortion back on the ballot. I think they came out because of that. There’s always the repudiation [from a majority of Democrats] of Donald Trump. I think that had something to do with it for sure.”

Salvatore Colleluori, the countywide campaign manager for Democrats in Delaware County, has a slightly different perspective.

He was “very pleasantly surprised” to see the high turnout. Colleluori acknowledged that the state Supreme Court race drove attention to the polls, but he believes the local Democratic candidates inspired voters to support their vision of the county.

“We flipped multiple municipalities and picked up seats in what used to be reliably Republican areas,” Colleluori said.

In recent years, Democrats established a county health department and deprivatized George W. Hill Correctional Facility. Colleluori said those actions gave the campaigns something to rally behind.

“We ran an entirely positive campaign highlighting the achievements of what Delaware County has done since it became under Democratic rule,” he said. “And I think that was something that voters bought into.”

Makhija, a Democrat, said Tuesday’s surge was a testament of steady local leadership — and a referendum on the Trump administration.

“It’s very clear that Donald Trump won because of high inflation and voters at the time wanted to punish the party in power because they didn’t feel like enough was being done quickly enough,” he said. “And yet everything that the Trump-Vance administration has done, has not been helpful for ordinary people and, in fact, has made inflation worse.”

As benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP, were slashed amid the federal government shutdown, Makhija said the local government showed up to support residents in need.

“They are cutting SNAP and, at the local level in Montgomery County, we’re committing $500,000 that we found in savings to actually feeding people and making sure that no one goes hungry in our communities,” Makhija said. “So that’s the contrast that voters see. They see that at the federal level, no one is looking out for their best interests.”

He also tipped his hat to local Democrats in the county for stepping up.

“We won big across the board in places that voted for Donald Trump — in places that have been red for a very long time,” Makhija said. “We flipped school boards, we flipped township councils. And this is at a time when, as I said, people are looking for leadership at the local level, and they chose Democrats.”

In Bucks County, which went to Trump by a few hundred votes in 2024, Democrat Joe Khan bested Republican incumbent Jennifer Schorn. He said the election results are a “beacon of hope.”

“I think that the voters in Bucks County spoke loud and clear, they don’t like extremism, they don’t like cruelty, they don’t like chaos, and that’s what we’ve been seeing all throughout 2025,” he said.

What could 2025 turnout figures mean for 2026?

2026 is already shaping up to be a significant election season in Pennsylvania.

“If we can pick up a few seats in the state house and reelect [Gov.] Josh Shapiro, I think you’re going to be looking at a position where you can actually see the full breadth of what Democrats can do when they’re allowed to govern,” Colleluori said. “And that means putting food on people’s tables, raising wages and making sure that people have good jobs to take care of their families.”

Colleluori said Democrats can use the 2025 figures as a guide for running a forward-looking campaign on “good government.”

“I hope that’s the lesson that is taken here that issues still matter, people still matter and good government still matters and I think, at least, for Delaware County the voters here gave that idea a resounding thumbs up,” Colleluori said.

Agovino is less inclined to look into the crystal ball for answers. Pennsylvania is full of surprises, he said.

“For Democrats, it’s fools gold if they think that what they saw yesterday means they know what’s going to happen next November,” Agovino said.

Historically, the party in control of the White House suffers a number of losses in the immediate elections that follow. Agovino won’t accept a “fait accompli.” Nothing is a certainty in this political environment, he said.

“If we’re having a conversation a year from now and Republicans increased their seats nationally and things improved locally, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Agovino said. “I really wouldn’t be.”