For voters interested in seeing rolling tallies, Spotlight PA is making available for free a tool that displays Associated Press results. Those results will be displayed under each office noted below. Please check back as results will be updated regularly.
Pa. governor and lt. governor
At the top of the ballot this election is the governor’s race.
Incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro was elected to the role in 2022 and is seeking a second term in office. State Treasurer Stacy Garrity is the Republican candidate, while Libertarian Ken Krawchuk will also be on the ballot.
The U.S. House of Representatives is made up of 435 elected lawmakers. The number of members from each state is based on its population — Pennsylvania has 17 representatives.
Members of the U.S. House serve two-year terms and are up for reelection during even years.
All but one of 17 members of Pennsylvania’s U.S. House delegation seek reelection in 2026. Who is listed on your ballot will be dictated by the congressional district you live in.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislative branch of the commonwealth, and like Congress, it has a lower and upper chamber: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The state Senate consists of 50 members and the state House has 203, making it the largest full-time legislature in the country.
The General Assembly is mainly responsible for proposing and passing state laws, and developing the state budget.
There will be 228 state legislative races on the ballot this year — this includes all of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives and half the state Senate.
You can read about the races with the biggest potential to shape the state House and Senate in our guide.
To learn how to evaluate legislative candidates who are on the ballot this election, check out our vetting guide.
To find who is running in your district, check your county election website for a sample ballot.
Frequently asked questions
While You’re Here
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Q: When will we know the final results of the election?
A: Votes will be counted throughout the evening on Nov. 3 after polls close at 8 p.m. and released in batches for several hours. By state law, Pennsylvania counties cannot process mail ballots before Election Day, and many have different procedures for counting votes and in what order.
Q: How can I find the latest election results in Pennsylvania?
A: For statewide races, you can check the Department of State’s election results website here. Local results may be posted by individual counties on their websites.
Q: Can I track my mail ballot in Pennsylvania?
A: Yes, the Pennsylvania Department of State allows you to track your ballot on its website. Go to pavoterservices.pa.gov/Pages/BallotTracking.aspx, where you will see a prompt to enter your name, date of birth, and county of residence. You can also contact your county election office to confirm the status of your ballot.
Q: What happens if there is a recount?
In Pennsylvania, a recount is automatically triggered when the margin is .5% or less. Election officials must then carry out the recount.
Three or more voters in a voting precinct can also request a recount. Candidates cannot request a recount.
A recount must be completed within three weeks of the election.
A: The Pennsylvania Department of State and county election offices make results available to the media.
Q: What is the process for certifying election results in Pennsylvania?
A: According to reporting by Votebeat, the process begins when the polls close and “counties begin uploading in-person results to their websites and that of the Department of State.”
A few days later, counties will begin their official canvass of the election.
“The canvass is just going through and double-, triple-checking that you have all of the ballots accounted for,” said Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Iowa who specializes in elections law, in 2022. Election officials are “making sure that everything is included and that every lawfully cast ballot is included in that final tally.”
“County elections offices will process provisional ballots during this time, checking to make sure the voters who cast them had not already submitted a mail-in ballot or whether the provisional ballots were somehow otherwise ineligible,” Votebeat reported. “Counties will also ‘reconcile’ their votes, meaning they will check to ensure that the number of voters recorded as having cast ballots in a given precinct matches the number of ballots counted from that precinct.”
“County elections offices also perform post-election audits during this period. Counties are required to do a recount of a random sample of 2% of ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever is fewer. Many counties also began conducting risk-limiting audits after the 2020 election, in which a random sample of ballots are hand-counted to ensure the totals match the results from the tabulation machine.”
By the Tuesday after Election Day, counties must submit results — as up-to-date as possible, but still unofficial — to the Department of State. These figures could change slightly as military and overseas ballots are counted and included in the tallies, per Votebeat.
“Local boards of election, comprised of the county’s commissioners, must sign a copy of the results twice for an election to be certified. Typically, candidates raise any challenges to the canvassing process in the five-day window between the first and second signings.”
