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Washington County tabulates mail-in ballots; no surprises among results

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On Thursday evening, about 47 hours after the polls closed on June 2, Washington County posted results of 47,736 mail-in and in-person ballots.

Trends emerging election night from in-person voting mirrored the results from mail-in ballots, so there were no surprises Thursday.

In the 49th District, incumbent Republican state Rep. Bud Cook of West Pike Run Township garnered 2,548 votes to challenger Tony Bottino’s 1,873. The district also includes communities in Fayette County, where Cook also bested Bottino, a Carroll Township resident.

Cook will face Democrat Randy Barli of Coal Center in November in his bid for a third, two-year term.

In the 39th District, first-term state Rep. Mike Puskaric of Union Township had 1,215 votes to Tom Kirsch’s 288 in Washington County. Kirsch, a Bethel Park resident, showed strength in Allegheny County, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Puskaric’s 80% to 19% domination in Washington County communities.

Puskaric’s opponent will be Democrat Sara-Summer Oliphant of South Park. The bulk of the district lies in Allegheny County.

The unofficial results show that in Washington County in the 37th Senatorial District among Republicans, Devlin Robinson prevailed in Peters Township with 1,941 votes to Jeff Neff’s 1,052. Robinson also won in Allegheny County, making him the nominee to face incumbent Democratic state Sen. Pam Iovino of Mt. Lebanon in November.

Washington County Commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan, who is also in charge of the election board, said the amount of time it took to process the 21,846 mail-in ballots necessitates having enough people available to handle them.

The commissioners assigned a dozen temporary workers to the task in the primary, along with seven from the elections office staff.

“This primary election was a trial run, essentially, for November,” said Commissioner Nick Sherman, which Washington County needs to bring to the attention of Gov. Tom Wolf and the Department of State.

Irey Vaughan campaigned last year on the formation of an elections review committee appointed by members of the board of commissioners.

The group met in March before the pandemic struck, and Irey Vaughan said 70-some suggestions are part of the group’s report. David Ball, chairman of the committee, said he expects the group to resume its task, but no date has been set.

Mail-in balloting requires precinct-level election officials to check if someone who arrives at a polling place has already voted by that method to avoid duplication. Delays can occur in the postal system, and, in a primary, human error can result in a voter receiving a ballot for the wrong party, Irey Vaughan noted.

Washington County participation among registered Democrats was 38.7% and among registered Republicans, 35.4%, making for a 37.1% turnout overall.

Democrats cast 15,607 mail-in ballots to 6,231 from members of the GOP. The statistics were reversed for in-person voting with 15,789 Republicans and 10,101 Democrats going to polling places.

If people did not receive a mail-in ballot or mistakenly lost or destroyed the papers, they were to go to the polls and vote provisionally. Provisional ballots have not yet been verified or counted, but the six-member canvass board is to be sworn in Friday to handle this task.

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