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The counting continues: Puskaric’s lead over GOP challenger Kirsch just 19 votes

4 min read
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Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter

A group of temporary workers sorts mail-in ballots Wednesday in the Washington County elections office.

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Washington County Democratic Party Chairman Ben Bright, left, and Rob Keddie, representing state Rep. Bud Cook, watch the scanning of mail-in ballots Wednesday morning at the Washington County elections office.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated.

When Pennsylvania’s 2020 election calendar was crafted, no one could have envisioned that the process would be delayed 35 days by a pandemic.

Or that an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots would flood elections offices, dragging out the tabulation process.

Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said 22,175 mail-in ballots came in, and they probably won’t all be counted until Friday.

New totals will be added to in-person votes on the elections page in a PDF – a portable document format – as they become available.

When votes were cast and partially counted, it appeared preliminarily that there will be no shakeup in the 49th District that includes Washington and Fayette counties. State Rep. Bud Cook had 2,825 votes to Tony Bottino’s 1,821, and the gap widened with the addition of some of Washington County’s mail-in ballots, giving Cook 3,070 and Bottino, 1,973.

Cook is seeking a third term. Democratic candidate Randy Barli ran unopposed.

But state Rep. Mike Puskaric’s lead over GOP challenger Tom Kirsch shrunk to just 19 votes by mid-afternoon Wednesday.

Puskaric’s totals from Allegheny County, where 98.3% of the precincts were reporting, and Washington County’s stood at 2,863 while Kirsch’s were 2,844.

There were 1,439 mail-in ballots cast in Washington County in the 39th District, and with the addition of some of them, Puskaric’s lead widened to 3,102 over Kirsch’s 2,868.

Puskaric, now a Union Township resident, led in Washington County while Kirsch, of Bethel Park, carried the Allegheny County part of the 39th District. Puskaric is seeking the nomination that would enable him to run for a second term.

Democrat Sara Summer Oliphant ran unopposed in the 39th District.

In a third GOP primary contest, Devlin Robinson of Bridgeville declared victory over opponent Jeff Neff in the 37th Senatorial District.

“From the economic disaster created by the coronavirus to the ongoing discord in our nation, our state’s response must include all voices, not those of a single party or Harrisburg clique,” Robinson said in a statement.

The Allegheny County part of the district includes the South Hills and airport areas and, in Washington County, Peters Township.

“I am here to be that independent voice of our district, not an echo of the Harrisburg elite,” he continued.

Robinson will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Pam Iovino of Mt. Lebanon in the Nov. 3 general election.

A state senator’s term is four years while state representatives serve for two years.

The incumbent from West Pike Run Township threatened legal action if two Washington County commissioners, also making up the majority of the three-person election board, did not step aside. Although Cook had lawyers watching the elections office, he did not file suit.

“We’ve had no direct contact with ballots,” said Washington County Commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan, who is also in charge of the election board, on election night.

As the absentee ballot deadline of 8 p.m. loomed Tuesday evening, Irey Vaughan said the Washington Post Office called about 30 minutes before the clock struck 8 to tell officials it had three trays of ballots.

“I don’t know that that’s ever happened before,” Irey Vaughan said. The county picked up the ballots, and they were among the trays of mail that were being opened, sorted and processed on Wednesday.

Washington County Democratic Chairman Ben Bright and GOP Vice Chairman David Ball each observed election procedures Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bright said “the elections office did a fantastic job with the resources they were given. Hopefully we can improve a lot of things this fall.”

Many more workers were needed because of the avalanche of mail-in ballots, Bright opined, but he complimented those who tackled the monumental task. And he hoped the state Legislature would allow votes to be tabulated days earlier.

Ball said he was “disappointed” at the slow pace of tabulating and glitches in the election results website. A clickable link was available on the county’s main website, and the usual format was up and running by Wednesday afternoon.

Ball heads a commissioner-appointed review committee, which he said will resume meeting now that restrictions related to the novel coronavirus pandemic are being eased.

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