A light voter turnout was reported at various voting precincts throughout the Times News region.

Though voters turned out to make their voices be heard, it clearly wasn’t in droves, as Tuesday’s primary election was overwhelmingly marked by sparse crowds.

As of noon, just 67 voters had come out to the Palmerton Senior Center, according to Ellen Colangelo, Judge of Elections, Palmerton Borough East - 47th.

“It’s been slow,” Colangelo said.

Much of that is likely attributed to the limited choices voters had in Carbon, Schuylkill, Monroe, Lehigh and Northampton counties.

That wasn’t about to stop Pam Scott of Palmerton from casting her votes.

“I’m just hoping for a real change in our country; we need it,” Scott said. “I’m hoping that people have been following the news and do the right thing.”

Likewise, James Supra of Palmerton said he wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass him by.

“I’m a little disappointed with the low turnout,” Supra said. “That’s par for the course for this particular time of year, but I’m hoping to do my part.”

How Carbon voted

With few choices confronting voters in Carbon County’s 51 election precincts in Tuesday’s Primary Election, voter turnout was well below the traditional high numbers typical of a Presidential Election. County voting was either limited to complimentary totals or races that were part of larger districts that encompassed other counties.

When the Carbon votes were tabulated Tuesday night, the county’s election bureau reported only 24.9% of the 43,513 eligible voters had cast their ballots.

The only contested race facing voters was for the Republican nomination the 7th Congressional District, where three candidates aspired for the position opposite Congresswoman Susan Wild, the Democrat who represents the county and who was unopposed yesterday.

The winner of the GOP balloting overall was State Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who also won the county balloting. Unofficial returns showed he collected 2,368 votes in Carbon, followed by Maria Montero, 2,137, and Kevin Dellicker, 2,038. Montero is a Carbon County native.

Wild received 3,508 votes from Carbon Democrats.

Token votes

County voters cast “token” votes for candidates for U.S. President, U.S. Senate, three statewide row offices and for PA Senate and PA House of Representatives seats.

In the presidential balloting locally, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. received 3,115 votes from party members in Carbon. U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota tallied 458 votes.

On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump tallied 6,054 votes while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who had since dropped out of the race, was the favor of 680 county Republicans.

As the presumptive winners of their parties’ nominations, a Biden-Trump rematch of the 2020 election will be the first campaign in 112 years featuring two candidates who have already served in the White House. The last case came when Woodrow Wilson defeated incumbent William Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s balloting set the stage for other General Election showdowns.

For U.S. Senate, longtime Sen. Robert P. Casey, a Democrat, was unopposed yesterday in pursuit of another six-year term. He received 3,581 complimentary votes from county voters.

He will face Republican David McCormick, who was also unopposed. He collected 6,166 token votes locally.

State races

In two of the three statewide races - auditor general and treasurer - Republican incumbents Tim DeFoor and Stacy Garrity, respectively, were unchallenged yesterday. DeFoor received 5,578 local votes while Garrity tallied 5,699.

Auditor General DeFoor will face Democrat Malcolm Kenyatta, a state representative from Philadelphia who won the statewide balloting over Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley. Locally, however, county voters favored their neighbor (Pinsley) by a margin of 2,581 to 946.

Garrity will face Democrat Erin McClelland, a former congressional candidate from Pittsburgh, in the General Election as she defeated State Rep. Ryan Bizzaro of Erie statewide. In Carbon, the Democrats went for McClelland with 2,215 votes, followed by Bizzaro with 1,227.

With no incumbent seeking return to the attorney general’s office, both parties had choices for their nominees. The winners statewide were Republican David Sunday, the York County district attorney, and Democrat Eugene DePasquale, a former state auditor general.

In the county balloting, the GOP voters favored Sunday with 4,078 votes while Wendell Williams totaled 1,879.

The Democratic voting locally favored former Bucks County Solicitor Joseph J. Khan with 934 votes, followed by Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, 839, DePasquale, 802, Jared Solomon, a state representative from Philadelphia, 627, and former Philadelphia Chief Public Defender Keir Bradford-Grey, 388.

The current attorney general, Democrat Michelle Henry, did not seek the seat. She became the attorney general in 2023 when Josh Shapiro resigned the position after being elected governor. He nominated Henry for the post and she was later confirmed by the Senate.

Two local officeholders, State Sen. David Argall and State Rep. Doyle Heffley, both Republicans, ran unopposed Tuesday.

Argall collected 6,040 token votes from Carbon voters as part of the 29th Senatorial District balloting, while Heffley received 6,320 complimentary votes in the 122nd Legislative District, which includes all of Carbon County.

Heffley appears to be unopposed in the General Election as there was no Democratic candidate yesterday while Argall will face John Zugarek in November. Zugarek is a Marywood University professor and White Haven borough councilman. He was unopposed in Tuesday’s Democratic balloting and received 3,308 token votes in winning the nomination.