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By Jamie Serra
Wednesday November 06, 2013 at 2:40 pm

After talking to poll workers throughout all of Harrisburg's voting wards and precincts it became clear that turnout was lower than typically expected. When compared to the 2009 Municipal Election Mayoral results were down by 19.46%. As precincts began to report their returns it was clear that this trend had continued throughout the remainder of the day.

Despite the fact that turnout was low the number of voters that turned out to the polls increased by 12.91% from the primary, a figure that coincides with the average composition of registered voters that are not registered with the Democratic or Republican parties.

Dan Miller lost 5 precincts that he previously won in the primary, two of which were won by slim margins within 10 votes.

Write-in candidate(s) secured 3 precincts Mayor Linda Thompson won in the primary, and Eric Papenfuse picked up 8 of Thompson's precincts.

Write-in votes nearly eclipsed Papenfuse in Ward 7 Precinct 2 and Ward 9 Precinct 3 by 4 and 3 votes respectively.

After comparing results it was clear that Miller maintained his base but failed to win the majority of voters that did not support him in the primary.

When comparing the results of the Primary to that of the Municipal election it was clear that the Papenfuse campaign was more effective at swaying the electorate's opinion in their favor. Whereas Miller's campaign only managed to increase their supporters by 10.6 percent, Papenfuse increased his supporters by nearly a third (31.45%).

Dauphin County will begin certifying election results on Friday, November 8th, 2013 at 9:00am. The official results will be presented at a meeting of the Dauphin County Commissioner’s on November 20th, 2013. This is when we’ll learn the exact figures Aaron Johnson received through his write-in campaign.

The following map contains election returns precinct by precinct. Miller is shaded in Blue, Papenfuse in Orange and write-in votes will be white.

Click each precinct to view the location of its polling place and current turnout information by clicking "Municipal Turnout". For mobile users you can view our map here.

Photo by Dani Fresh

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