Pennsylvania Mail-In Voting Declines in Gubernatorial Election

Mail voting in Pennsylvania declined during this month’s gubernatorial election as trust in postal delivery dropped.

Postal ballots accounted for just over 30% of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s total in November, down from the more than 37% seen with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2024. The same downward trend appeared among Republican voters across the state.

More than 11% of votes for Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity were cast by mail, down from about 19% of votes for President Donald Trump in 2024. In Centre County, about 32% of the votes for Shapiro came from mail-in ballots, compared with around 38% for Harris in 2024. Almost 13% of votes for Garrity came by mail-in ballot in the county, dropping from approximately 20% for Trump.

Shapiro vs. Garrity: Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Election Results 2026

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking new restrictions on mail-in ballots. The directive instructed the U.S. Postal Service to incorporate new tracking barcodes onto ballot envelopes and cross-reference ballot requests with state-provided lists of eligible voters. Courts blocked the proposed changes, but the order contributed to uncertainty surrounding mail voting.

Public confidence in the Postal Service’s capacity to deliver election mail punctually has fallen by 13 percentage points since 2024, according to findings from an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. Initially, voters expressed apprehension to the Centre County Democratic Committee regarding the safety of sending their ballots through the mail, as noted by committee chair Margie Swoboda.

“We were a little concerned at the beginning, but then, when people started telling us that they mailed it in and, you know, everything went well, we said, ‘Okay, that's good,’” Swoboda said.

Swoboda said local election administration is important in maintaining public confidence in the voting process. “The states have control over elections. That's critical that people remember that. It is literally your neighbors that are running the polls for us,” she said.

The committee trained poll observers to monitor procedures at all precincts in the county, and Swoboda said they reported that the election process went smoothly. The Centre County Board of Elections is scheduled to audit 2% of election results Thursday. The board plans to certify the results Tuesday, Nov. 17.