Washington County website malfunctioned Tuesday night, so elections office resorted to paper
Fates were hanging in the balance Tuesday night, and with about 10,000 mail-in ballots to be counted today, it’s hard to call outcomes.
And for those who were depending on the Washington County website, getting results was even tougher.
A malfunction paired candidates who weren’t running against each other.
“In our test, everything worked great,” said Melanie Ostrander, Washington County elections director. “It’s on the vendor’s side, unfortunately.”
So the elections office went to an old standby – printing out paper copies – to distribute by hand to those in the Courthouse Square office building rather than via the internet.
With 169 of 180 Washington County precincts reporting Tuesday night, and keeping in mind that only about half of the mail-in ballots figured into the total, here are some late-night highlights, all among Republican Party hopefuls:
In the 49th Legislative District, incumbent State Rep. Bud Cook with 2,380 was leading challenger Tony Bottino, who had 1,408, including totals for Washington and Fayette counties.
Randy Barli of Coal Center was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
In another Mon Valley Legislative District, the incumbent was also prevailing, but mail-in votes were significant enough to change an outcome.
The 39th legislative district saw one-term state Rep. Mike Puskaric of Union Township facing a challenge within the Republican Party from Tom Kirsch of Bethel Park, a retired businessman.
Puskaric had 2,242 votes to Kirsch’s 1,451 in Washington and Allegheny counties.
The winner will face Dr. Robert Rhoderick, a Democratic Elizabeth Township commissioner who ran unopposed for the 39th Legislative nomination in his party in the Nov. 3 general election.
And in the 37th state Senatorial District, Devlin Robinson was leading in both Allegheny and Washington counties. Robinson, of Bridgeville, had 7,484 votes in Peters Township, the sole Washington County community in the district, plus the Allegheny County’s South Hills and airport areas. Jeff Neff had 725 votes in Peters, and his total, with Allegheny was 5,364, according to unofficial results at press time.
The winner of the contest will face incumbent Democratic state Sen. Pam Iovino of Mt. Lebanon in the Nov. 3 general election.