Erie County voters electing several Democratic candidates this general election.

We have reaction from local party chairmen on these results, including more than 18,000 mail in ballots.

Roughly 61,300 Erie County voters participated in the 2023 Erie County General Election, about 30 percent of those voters mailed in their ballots.

One local political expert said this impacted the outcome of several municipal races.

“We have seen Republicans time and time again fail to embrace mail in voting and it’s costing them. It cost them in 2020 without a doubt and it cost them yesterday,” said Dr. Joe Morris, political

The Erie County Elections Office reported of the mail in ballots, approximately 74 percent were Democratic voters and 19 percent were Republican.

“The vast majority of mail in votes that came in, in Pennsylvania, were submitted by Democrats, and with the low voter turnout you know that a large percentage of the votes cast were going to be mail in,” Dr. Morris said.

The chairman of the Erie County Democratic party said he attributes some of the success to the candidates campaigns and to a lot of door knocking.

He believes some Erie County residents dissatisfied with the status of Erie County Government.

“I think yesterday’s turn out was reflective of the way people are feeling about the state of affairs in county government and yesterday gave them a great opportunity to take some action,” said Jim Wertz, Erie County Democratic Party Chairman.

GOP Chair Tom Eddy said he encourages Republicans to apply for mail in ballots. Eddy said he supports Erie County Election Office and their processing of mail in ballots.

“The people there we should be very proud of what they do- the work they do and even the volunteers and the ability of them to try to be sure that those ballots are accurate and counted correctly,” he said. “I really hope that the Republicans- the Democrats have figured it out- but I hope that the Republicans start recognizing that those mail in ballots can be very helpful.”