Cook holds 23-vote lead in 49th Legislative race; absentee ballots re-tabulated
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Washington County elections officials scan absentee ballots Thursday.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Democratic candidate Steve Toprani makes a phone call Thursday afternoon from outside the Washington County Elections Office, where absentee ballots were being scanned.
Rep. Bud Cook
Steve Toprani
The Washington County elections office was a beehive of activity as absentee ballots were again tabulated in the razor-thin race for a seat representing the 49th Legislative District.
The results from an absentee ballot count that became available shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday showed incumbent Republican Bud Cook’s lead narrowed to 23 votes over Democratic challenger Steve Toprani.
The totals from Washington and Fayette counties, both including absentee ballots, stood at 9,932 for Cook and 9,909 for Toprani.
At the close of business Wednesday, Cook, a West Pike Run Township resident, had a 26-vote lead over Toprani of Monongahela.
On election night, which did not include absentee ballot totals from Washington County, Cook had a 94-vote lead.
By 1 p.m. Thursday, 17 of 19 missing absentee ballots had been located. One, for example, had been returned to Courthouse Square inside a box holding an electronic pollbook, said Elections Director Larry Spahr.
Two absentee ballots – one apiece from Carroll Township precincts 2 and 4 – could not be located.
Absentee ballots are to be placed in a specially designated envelope.
Voted absentee ballots must be inside the elections office by the close of business the Friday before an election, so they can be delivered to polling stations.
State law says an absentee voter who is present in the precinct on Election Day is to report to the polling place, void his or her absentee ballot and cast a vote in person. Monitors are also able to challenge an absentee ballot if the person who cast it is spotted within the precinct during voting hours.
Toprani, a former district attorney, was the top vote-getter in Washington County on election night, but Cook’s total in precincts on the Fayette County side of the Mon Valley wiped out Toprani’s advantage.
Cook, a small businessman, is finishing his first, two-year term as a legislator. He ran under the slogan, “Rehire Bud Cook.”
Attorneys for the Republican and Democratic candidates declined comment after the absentee votes were totaled Thursday at the Washington County elections office. Toprani was present, but Cook was not.
The nine-member election canvass board is scheduled to be sworn in at 9 a.m. Friday. It will be up to them to check the validity of 78 provisional ballots cast in Washington County in the 49th District.
Spahr said some provisional ballots may not be eligible at all, and others may not be part of a “full count,” meaning not every office for which a vote was cast may be eligible.
A voter who is registered in Pennsylvania, for example, would be able to vote for statewide candidates, but if he or she did not reside in the 49th District, a vote there would not be valid.
Military ballots postmarked no later than Monday, Nov. 5, have until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, to arrive in the elections office and be counted. Of seven outstanding military ballots issued in the 49th District by Washington County, one has arrived. Others that were in the election office during the absentee vote count were co-mingled with civilian ballots and have already been counted.
The computer program from the touchscreen voting system calculated turnout in Washington County on Election Day was 56.6 percent, or 80,012 voters. The percentage and number of voters does not include absentee ballots cast.
This bested the recent high turnout in a mid-term election, 50 percent and 70,000 voters in 2010, Spahr noted.