The General Election is November 4, 2025

Primary Elections

The Democratic and Republican parties have agreed to use the Pennsylvania election system to run their own internal elections. This is called a primary election and is used by the parties to select people to be on the ballot in November. Because both the Republican and Democratic parties have agreed to use the infrastructure of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for their own private elections, they must abide by the rules set up by the Secretary of State of Pennsylvania. These rules are effectively equal to the rules for the general election.

Since the primary election is a party election, only party members may vote. This requires two different ballots on any primary election day, one for each party.

Pennsylvania traditionally has had their primary election in May of each year except in presidential election years when it is usually earlier in the year.

For more on what a primary is see this link https://www.vote.pa.gov/About-Elections/Pages/Types%20of%20Elections.aspx

Ballot Questions

Sometimes, the PA Legislature decides to put decisions up for a vote during the primary election. If this happens, questions are added to the Democratic and Republican ballots. ALSO, since these decisions are open for all registered voters to weigh-in on, there is a THIRD ballot printed with only the decisions (also known as questions) for those registered voters who are not Republican or Democratic to use to vote on those decisions. So if there are questions on the ballot, then all registered voters can come to the polls on a primary day and vote (or vote by mail).

School Board Candidates

A special case is those of non-partisan races where which party the candidate belongs to is not as important as the candidate's positions on issues themselves. School boards should be non-partisan since they do not do any legislation (they don't make laws) and do not get paid. They represent the state and local community so that the school is run in a professional and safe manner. In those races, candidates can run as both Democratic and Republican and therefore are on both Democratic and Republican ballots in the primary election. The idea is to vote for the best candidates, not the best party.

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