PA election law stipulates that election districts ideally contain between 100 and 1,200 registered voters. McKeesport Ward 1 has 13 and North Fayette District 5 has 3,269.

www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis...

Poll workers for McKeesport Ward 1 had to process exactly one voter during the entire 13-hour period, while poll workers for North Fayette District 5 had to process just over one voter for every minute of those 13 hours.

And then there are individual precincts. Poll workers had to process this number of voters during the 13 hours polls were open:

North Fayette 0-5 - 786
Robinson 0-9 - 670
Ohio 0-3 - 650
Hampton 0-11 - 632
Collier 0-1 - 626

Polling locations with the most:

Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church - 1,577
Fort Couch Middle School (Upper St. Clair) - 1,506
Foster Elementary School (Mt. Lebanon) - 1,418
Montour High School (Robinson) - 1,399
Howe Elementary School (Mt. Lebanon) - 1,361

I see two trends:

Republicans are ever so slowly becoming more comfortable with mail-in voting.

Republicans applied for ballots in relatively higher numbers in General Elections when compared to Democrats.

Except 2025.

The ratio of D/R applications for every election since then:

2022 P: 545/100
2022 G: 508/100

2023 P: 532/100
2023 G: 490/100

2024 P: 444/100
2024 G: 279/100

2025 P: 421/100
2025 G: 431/100

But there is a stat that sticks out to me applicable to Allegheny County at least:

For the 2021 Primary, there were 533 Democratic applications for every 100 Republican, with the ratio being 528/100 for the General. It went down: there were more Republican applications, relatively speaking.

The lowered return rate is typical for an odd year when compared to a Presidential year, but the biggest thing to note is the difference in the return rate. They were nearly even in 2024, but there is a greater than 1% gap in the Democrats' favor this year.

... tomorrow, and though there are signs that Republicans will once again apply in large numbers (for them) in these final weeks, so far it hasn't been pronounced as before.

...until the last couple weeks before the election. Typically, Republicans apply in larger numbers right before the election happens, and the ratio winds up being higher for Republicans than Democrats. This was especially pronounced in 2022 and 2023. We are three weeks away from the election ...

I don't have statewide data prior to 2024, but I do have data for Allegheny County back to 2021. Typically, in past years (except 2024), the ratio of mail-in ballot applications for the general election compared the total for the previous primary tended to be higher for Democrats that Republicans...

Some aspects where that skews comparisons: in 2024, at the time of the primary, there were 3 Democratic mail-in ballot requests for every Republican, and this year that stood at 2.8 D applications for every R. By this time last year, that ratio stood at 2.1, but this year it is at 2.9, trending up.