It seems nationally there's some political stuff going on today & tomorrow, whatev, but here in Pittsburgh we are all only #onhere for the sudden news that we have a contested mayoral primary ahead: & all the reasons that's Actually a Good Thing (whoever wins!). Eg, 👇
https://twitter.com/KeeganGibson/status/1351691156690771969
For my part I am just on Team Democracy, & from that point of view am really hopeful this contested race may make progress in rectifying the severe voter registration deficit that COVID-19 falling in presidential year 2020 caused in Pittsburgh's most marginalized neighborhoods👇 
The gray collumns are total registered voters in 2019; the yellow are 2020. Whereas 2015 to 2016 saw bumps up in voter registration across all sets of precincts, 2019-20 saw declines, esp. 1) in student-heavy precincts (the middle sets below, where Trump got 10-30% of the vote) &
2) precincts where Trump16 got under 10% of the vote: heavily African American neighborhoods, where rather than rising as in 2015-16 & '18-19, total regist'd voters *fell* in 2020. Extra outreach needed to happen this yr to keep 2008 registrants active & on rolls: Didn't happen☹️
Those same heavily African American precincts had lower uptake on mail-in ballots (which includes votes cast early in person at satellite locations) than other precincts in the city: will be important to identify & work to rectify barriers people faced in voting amid pandemic
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