2020 Pennsylvania elections

On October 29, 2019, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed Act 77 by a vote of 138–61.^[5] Later that day, the Pennsylvania State Senate passed Act 77 by a vote of 35–14.^[6] Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 77 into law two days later.^[7] The law enacted numerous changes to Pennsylvania's election code. Voters were allowed to request a mail-in ballot without providing a reason.^[7] 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.^[7] It said that mail-in ballots and absentee ballots would be valid if received by 8 p.m. on election day.^[7] 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.^[7] The law said the state would cover up to 60 percent of the cost for counties to replace their voting machines with systems that had voter-verifiable paper.^[7] Governor Wolf described the changes as the "most significant improvement to Pennsylvania’s elections in more than 80 years".^[8]

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,^[9][10] and Gov. Wolf signed it into law two days later.^[11] 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.^[12]

Pennsylvania had 20 electoral votes in the Electoral College.^[13] Incumbent Republican Donald Trump won the state in 2016 with 48.2% of the vote.

2020 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Joe Biden	3,458,229	50.01
	Republican	Donald Trump (incumbent)	3,377,674	48.84
	Libertarian	Jo Jorgensen	79,380	1.15
Total votes			6,915,283	100.00
	Democratic win

Voters in Pennsylvania elected 18 candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the 18 congressional districts.^[14]

District	Democratic nominee	Republican nominee	Libertarian nominee	Independent candidates
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)

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Three executive offices were up for election in Pennsylvania's general election: auditor general, attorney general, and treasurer.^[15]

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.

2020 Pennsylvania Attorney General election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Josh Shapiro (incumbent)	3,461,472	50.85
	Republican	Heather Heidelbaugh	3,153,831	46.33
	Libertarian	Daniel Wassmer	120,489	1.77
	Green	Richard Weiss	70,804	1.04
Total votes			6,806,596	100.00
	Democratic hold

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.

2020 Pennsylvania State Treasurer election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Stacy Garrity	3,291,877	48.68
	Democratic	Joe Torsella (incumbent)	3,239,331	47.91
	Libertarian	Joseph Soloski	148,614	2.20
	Green	Timothy Runkle	81,984	1.21
Total votes			6,761,806	100.00
	Republican gain from Democratic

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.

2020 Pennsylvania Auditor General election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Timothy DeFoor	3,338,009	49.44
	Democratic	Nina Ahmad	3,129,131	46.35
	Libertarian	Jennifer Moore	205,929	3.05
	Green	Olivia Faison	78,588	1.16
Total votes			6,751,657	100.00
	Republican gain from Democratic

25 of 50 seats (odd-numbered districts) in the Pennsylvania Senate were up for election in Pennsylvania's general election.^[16]

A special election was also held on January 14 in the 48th senatorial district after the resignation of Republican senator Mike Folmer.

All 203 seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives were up for election in the general election.^[17]

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.^[18]

• Postal voting in the United States, 2020^[19]
• Elections in Pennsylvania
• Electoral reform in Pennsylvania
• Bilingual elections requirement for Pennsylvania (per Voting Rights Act Amendments of 2006)^[20]
• Political party strength in Pennsylvania
• Politics of Pennsylvania