Josh Imhof | staff writer

Allegheny County ranks second in total number of voters in Pennsylvania at 943,221, with only Philadelphia County having more at 1,094,031, according to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Voting and Election Statistics website.

Democrats hold a substantial lead of registered voters at 522,563 registered or 55.4%, nearly doubling the 270,952 or 28.72% registered as Republicans. Looking back at the past two elections, these percentages of registered voters are somewhat reflective of the actual voter turnout percentages for both party’s candidates.

Despite Allegheny County’s likelihood of going blue, every vote is still just as important to each candidate on the larger scale as the state is decided by a popular vote, not by who wins the most counties. This means that every vote each candidate gets will bump up their state-wide total and decide who wins the electoral college.

This proved crucial for former President Donald Trump in 2016. Despite losing both Allegheny and Philadelphia, he won the state as a whole by a narrow margin.

Regardless of these stats, there will still be anomalies, like voters who vote out of their registered party.

“Voters sometimes don’t update their registration by party, and so the party’s views on issues, or particular candidates’ views on issues may stray from what the voter expected the party to support, or what the party has supported in the past,” said Clifford Bob, chair of political science at Duquesne University.

How a voter feels economically can play a very big role in their decision to vote.

“For instance, you might see some Democrats voting, not voting for the Democratic candidate, and possibly voting for the Republican candidate,” Bob said.

Voters will also compare the U.S. to where it was four years ago. If they feel the country is not in a better place they could decide to switch parties, according to Bob.

They also may look at how a candidate’s values align with their own.

In the Pittsburgh metro area, 78% of people identify as Christian, according to the Pew Research Center. Within this category, different denominations are more likely to vote certain ways than others.

“We know that amongst white evangelicals, they tend to be a fairly powerful voting block, usually on the conservative side of things. Catholics tend to be split right down the middle 50/50, voting either Democrat or Republican. The Black Christian community has typically broken more for Democrats,” said Anna Scheid, sociology professor at Duquesne University.

Issues that these subgroups find important play a large role in how they vote, with topics such as abortion, same-sex marriage, civil-rights and poverty driving decision making. Opinions can differ within a certain denomination.

“There’s definitely a spectrum within Catholicism that could be mapped, sort of from conservative to liberal or progressive, but that doesn’t always map precisely on top of politics in the United States,” said Scheid.

When looking at individual age groups, Democrats also hold a strong advantage on a county-wide scale. This lead is the largest within the aged 25-34 demographic, where 60,434 more people are registered Democrats than Republicans.

Over the past year, 18 to 24 year olds have seen a drastic increase in registration, especially among 18-year-olds, according to the Civics Center Organization.

Starting on Dec. 25, 2023, the organization gathered data from the Pennsylvania Department of State’s voter file and tracked what percentage of 18-year-olds are registered to vote across the county and within individual school districts.

At the beginning, South Fayette High School had the largest number of 18-year-olds registered at 44.8%. As of Oct. 14, this number has skyrocketed, with the percentage nearly doubling and jumping to 89.5% of 18-year-olds at the school.

Pittsburgh Public Schools now have the largest number of registered 18-year-olds in the county at 90% of the demographic.

On the county level, registered 18-year-olds increased from 28.6% to 67.2%.

These new voters will have many ways to vote, including with mail-in ballots and early in person options.

As of Oct. 30, Allegheny County has the highest number of mail-in ballot applications approved in the state with 255,655. This is almost 20,000 more than Philadelphia County which currently has 236,452.

Of these approved applicants, 186,325 completed ballots have been returned. Of these returned ballots, 126,323 have come from registered Democrats, 41,674 from registered Republicans and 18,328 from other party registrations.

Voters who prefer to vote in person are still welcome to, and each of Allegheny County’s polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.