Brief by Aren Framil and Shrija Krishnan, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Business Manager
Photos by Aren Framil and Raima Saha, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Managing Editor
On Tuesday, April 23, thousands of Pennsylvanians sent in their votes through mail, drop-off boxes and in-person ballots for the Pennsylvania primary elections. Some Conestoga students voted for the first time in Tuesday’s closed primary, registering before April 8 to vote as either a Democrat or Republican.
In Tredyffrin Township, around 23% of registered voters participated in the election, and around 22% voted in Easttown Township. Seven Tredyffrin/Easttown schools collected ballots, including Conestoga High School, which acted as the polling place for three separate precincts in Tredyffrin Township.
John Parker, Committee Person for the Tredyffrin Township Democrats, has volunteered at the polls in Tredyffrin Township for 40 previous elections. He says that participation in local elections for high schoolers is inconsistent, but many former students will return years later to make a difference.
“I had one kid who came through when he was 7 to watch his mother vote. He asked me ‘What’s important about voting?’ I told him, and then he disappeared for a while,” Parker said. “He came back when he was 27, and he said, ‘I want to become a staff member on one of the elections.’ I put him in touch with his local U.S. representative from Washington and he went down and worked there. So, you never know.”
At the federal level, voters decided on Pennsylvania’s delegates for the Democratic and Republican presidential and Representative nominees. Both incumbent presidential candidates — Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump — won all Pennsylvania delegates for their respective parties.
For state positions, voters selected Democratic and Republican nominees for Attorney General, Auditor General, Treasurer and State Legislator. While most state positions ran uncontested, five candidates ran for Democratic nominee for Attorney General, with Eugene DePasquale winning the election with 36% of the popular vote. Of the two candidates who ran for the Republican nominee for Attorney General, Dave Sunday won with 70% of the vote.
Elections for Republican and Democratic County Committees at the municipal level also took place on Tuesday. All federal, state and municipal Democratic and Republican nominees will run against each other during the general election on Nov. 5.
“Everything that you do in your public life is dependent on the people that you get into office,” Parker said. “We have two different groups here: we have the Republicans, we have the Democrats. We need both of them, because any group that has complete control gets to be ‘bad.’ I think it’s very important to have both parties. They keep each other straight.”
Aren Framil can be reached at [email protected].
Shrija Krishnan can be reached at [email protected].
