On May 15, Pennsylvania held its primary elections. Pennsylvania is one of four states with statewide partisan elections this year. The others are Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Those other three states haven’t had their primaries yet.

Pennsylvania elects four statewide partisan judges this year: two to the State Supreme Court, and two to Superior Court. The November 2007 judicial races will determine how many signatures are required for minor party and statewide independent petitions in 2008.

Fewer than 1,400,000 voters turned out in Pennsylvania on May 15, even though the state had 8,108,125 registered voters that day. The low turnout was especially surprising, given that both major parties had such close races for the judicial posts. The margin for one of the Republican Superior Court nominations was less than 10,000 votes, and the margin for one of the Democratic Superior Court nominations was just barely above 10,000 votes. If the turnout in November 2007 is double what it was for the primary, the number of signatures needed in 2008 will only be about 28,000 signatures. By contrast, in 2006 it was 67,070 signatures.