Did Republican turnout for the Pennsylvania primary on May 17, 2022, increase by some 500,000 votes over 2018? Yes, that's true: Election returns on the Pennsylvania Department of State's website through May 19, 2022, show an even bigger increase than that, topping 600,000 additional GOP ballots compared to 2018, depending on the race. More ballots for Democrats were cast, too, but the amount of the increase wasn't as much.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post on May 18, 2022, under the title "Pennsylvania News:" It opened:
So far, 1,222,795 voters cast a Republican ballot in the 2022 primary.
For context, 730,857 voters cast a Republican ballot in the 2018 primary.
+491,938
This is what the post looked like on Facebook on May 19, 2022:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu May 19 15:56:55 2022 UTC)
The Pennsylvania vote -- Republicans
Primary voting was way up in the Keystone State for 2022 over 2018, especially in the GOP races. The midday vote tally for the Republican Senate race on May 19, 2022, was 1,333,686. That's up from 687,430 four years earlier, or a 94% increase. In the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary, 1,337,067 people had voted for Republican candidates. In 2018, the number was 737,312. That's an 81.3% increase from the time before.
(Source: Created in Canva using data from the Pennsylvania Department of State)
The Pennsylvania vote -- Democrats
Democrats also turned out in greater numbers in the Pennsylvania primaries, although they didn't match their GOP rivals. The midday vote tally for the Democratic Senate race on May 19, 2022, was 1,239,699. That's up from 752,008 four years earlier, or a 65% increase. In their 2022 gubernatorial primary, 1,184,436 people had voted for Democratic candidates. In 2018, the number was 749,812. That's a 58% increase from the last time around.
(Source: Created in Canva using data from the Pennsylvania Department of State)
