Disappointing voter turnout in PA primary yesterday. Sub 20 % compared to 40% in 2016.

[dutch777]

I know primaries are almost always low turnout but this was really dismal. Glad that Biden won handily and that the Haley protest vote showed up against Donnie but worry that if the lack of enthusiasm extends into November it does not bode well. And as a vet it disturbs me more than a little that not everyone eligible to vote registers and that turnout as a percentage of eligible voters continues to slide so much election after election.

[Sky Jewels]

1. I heard that Democrats turned out in higher numbers than Republicans.

Which is encouraging.

[EarlG]

2. 2016 was a highly competitive primary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Pennsylvania_Democratic_presidential_primary

This time around, the primary was not competitive on either side. Low turnout is to be expected. Which is why these numbers are encouraging:

In Pennsylvania, Trump won the Republican primary with 789,139 votes and 83.4% of the vote.

Meanwhile Biden won the Democratic primary with 929,361 and 93.1% of the vote.

(The tallies above were recorded with the overall count at 96% in the Dem primary and 99% in the GOP primary, so they may change but only slightly.)

Bottom line: Operating under similar circumstances -- in a potential swing state, with both candidates having already wrapped up their party's nomination -- Trump's performance, as the challenger, was much weaker than Biden's.