The numbers are in!

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% Turnout % Turnout Leaderboard Turnout Leaderboard Turnout History Turnout History Comparison Turnout by Voting Method Turnout by Voting Method Comparison % Voted Early % Mail Ballots Spoiled % Mail Ballots Unreturned Mail Ballots Unreturned % Change Turnout Endorsements

Have you ever wondered how the 2nd Ward performed in Philadelphia when compared to other wards? How about your particular division? Well, you’ve come to the right place. The official voter file is in and we’ve crunched the numbers.

Important notes:

All statistics have been rounded up or down. So, some numbers may appear to be a statistical dead heat.
All charts reflect registered Democrats.
The image sliders below show Philadelphia on the left and the 2nd Ward on the right.

So, let’s dive in…

% Turnout

City turnout of 67.6% is about flat and shows a 4.4% decrease over the 2020 General Election. 2nd Ward turnout was 76.2%, beating the city by 8.6%. Compared to the General of 2020, our voter turnout decreased by 4.8%, which is about what the city saw on average. Check out the leaderboard below for how we finished city-wide and also for how our divisions performed.

% Turnout Leaderboard

The 2nd Ward finished 9th in the city at 76.2%. That’s within 2 percentage points of 5th place, and 7.6% of 1st place, which is perennially the 9th Ward. You can see the city average in red at 67.6%. (Please note the Open Wards shown in green. What’s an Open Ward?)

For the top five spots in the 2nd Ward, Division 24 came in first, followed by 23, 2, 1, and 6.

Turnout Leaderboard

Ever wonder which ward or division has the most clout in terms of generating raw votes? The 2nd Ward was 9th in the city. (Please note the Open Wards shown in green. What’s an Open Ward?)

Turnout History

% Turnout

Fortunately, the 2nd Ward is in an upward trajectory for percent voter turnout. The city is about flat.

Raw Turnout

How about some very good news? The 2nd Ward had the highest turnout yet, besting the General Election of 2020 by 452 votes. The City is in a slight upward trajectory, but 32,103 votes less than the 2020 General. That’s sad as Bob Casey lost by way below than that.

% and Raw Turnout Compared to Average of General Elections 2016 through 2023

% Turnout

Both the city and 2nd Ward are showing a double digit increase in percent voter turnout compared to the average of 2016-2023 General Elections.

Raw Turnout

Also, both the city and 2nd Ward are showing a substantial increase in raw voter turnout compared to the average of 2016-2023 General elections.

Turnout by Voting Method

This shows the raw number of votes cast per ward and division broken into Mail, At Polls, Absentee, and Provisional. The 2nd Ward showed a slight increase in mail voting compared with the city.

Turnout by Voting Method Comparison to Last General

It looks like voting by mail was more popular over the last general election.

% Voted Early

Voted early means:

Mail-in voting, Civilian overseas, Absentee
Any voting method other than At Polls (AP)

The 2nd Ward voted about 5% earlier than the city.

% Mail-in Ballots Spoiled

Spoiling a mail-in ballot means bringing it to the polls and voting in person, possibly even provisionally. But, despite the name, spoiled ballots are not a bad thing, per se. It may mean that the voter forgot to mail their ballot on time, and since drop boxes have decreased in number, that person decided to bring their ballot to the polls. (We’d much rather have a spoiled ballot than no vote at all!) Overall, the number of spoiled ballots are about the same in both the city and 2nd Ward.

% Mail-in Ballots Unreturned

All of these charts were corrected by subtracting the number of mail-in ballots that were spoiled.

% Mail-in Ballots Unreturned Leaderboard

Less is more. The 2nd Ward finished in 5th place at 4.5% unreturned, about 3% below the city average of 7.2%. This is amazing work. We employed text banking to chase ballots, sending 2,683 text messages. (Sorry if we bugged you.)

% Mail-in Ballots Unreturned History

Way fewer mail ballots were unreturned, thankfully.

Mail-in Ballots Unreturned

These charts were corrected by subtracting the number of mail-in ballots that were spoiled.

% Mail-in Ballots Unreturned Leaderboard

Mail-in Ballots Unreturned History

The 2nd Ward contributed an exceptionally low 219 unreturned mail ballots, which is only 1.65% of the citywide total.

PSA: Don’t be one of these unreturned ballots! Never mail your ballot within one week of the election as it may not arrive in time. It must be RECEIVED by 8 PM on Election Day.

If you still have your ballot within one week of the election, always use a drop box – or bring your ballot to the polls. It will be spoiled (cancelled) and you will be allowed to vote on the machines.

If your ballot was not received by Election Day, or you don’t think you mailed it in time, come to the polls and vote provisionally. That way, your vote will count no matter what.

% Change in Turnout from Last General

If we look at percent change in turnout between the general elections of 2023 and 2024, voter turnout was way, way up – understandably.

Endorsements

The above chart shows Harris (blue), other votes (green), and Trump (red) in the left stack. The right stack shows the tally of who voted based on their registered party. It’s interesting to see how independents voted per division (in general).

Here’s the outcome of our endorsed candidates (with city and state results, if different):

US President/Vice President: Kamala Harris/Tim Walz won our ward and city but regrettably lost statewide – and nationally.
US House District 3: Dwight Evans won unopposed.
US Senate: Bob Casey; PA Attorney General: Eugene DePasquale; PA Auditor General: Malcolm Kenyatta; and PA Treasurer: Erin McClelland won locally but lost statewide.
PA Senate District 1: Nikil Saval; and PA House District 182: Ben Waxman won unopposed.