by Karen Melton, Southeastern Pennsylvania Group
Pennsylvania’s Primary Elections are early this year – April 23rd – which means all the associated dates are early as well. Here are the most important ones to know:
April 8th – Last date to register to vote. You can register in person, by mail, or online. For more information go to pavoterservices.pa.gov.
April 16th – Last date to request a mail-in ballot.
April 23rd – Primary election day, mail-in ballots must be received by this date.
We all know 2024 is a presidential election year, but many other important offices are up for voting. Be sure and check out which of your elected officials will be on your ballot before it’s time to vote!
U.S. President – serves a 4-year term.
U.S. Senate – U.S. Senators serve a term of 6 years. Every two years one third of the 100 U.S. Senate seats are up for election including PA Senator Casey’s seat this year.
U.S. House – U.S. House members serve 2-year terms. All 435 U.S. House seats are up for election in 2024.
PA Senate – PA senators serve a term of 4 years. 25 of the 50 PA senate seats are up for election in 2024.
PA House – Members serve 2-year terms. All 203 seats are up for election in 2024.
State-wide Offices – in 2024 PA will elect an Attorney General, Auditor General and State Treasurer.
The primary date occurs during Passover. If that creates a conflict for you, please consider voting early by mail.
There are many excellent fact-based sources of information about who is running for various offices such as Ballotready.org/pa. Wikipedia is also a good source to see who is running in the Pennsylvania House, Pennsylvania Senate, and U.S. House races. Set aside an evening or two to find out who is running for your local PA house and U.S. House seats, whether your PA Senate seat is up for election and who is running, and to read up on those as well as the candidates for U.S. Senate and State-wide offices. Individual candidate websites and social media accounts are a good source to learn about backgrounds and issue positions.
Local Sierra club political committee members will be making endorsements prior to the Primary Election, with additional ones prior to the general election in November. You can find them on the Sierra Club Pennsylvania website.
This blog was included as part of the March 2024 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!