Reschenthaler wins second two-year term; Snyder trailing, but many ballots yet to be counted in Greene
Local attorney Noah Geary arrives Tuesday evening at Citizens Library public meeting room polling place.
In what may be among the most elegantly appointed polling places in Washington County, Citizens Library Circulation Director Kathy Pienkowski of South Strabane Township, in a photo taken the day before an election last year, shows where voting booths will be set up near a fireplace and portrait of Stephen Collins Foster, the Pittsburgh native who is known as "the father of American music."
Olivia Hammond of Burgettstown hands out literature at the Citizens Library polling place on South College Street in Washington.
Observer-Reporter
In this file photo from November 2020, Cassondra Garcia of Canonsburg drops her ballot in the box in the lobby of the Courthouse Square office building, Washington, which was under the supervision of sheriff’s deputies.
According to unofficial returns Tuesday night, Republican Congressman Guy Reschenthaler was on his way to a second, two-year term representing Washington, Greene and Fayette counties, plus part of Westmoreland.
The figures as of 10:45 p.m. were 47,082 for Reschenthaler, a resident of Peters Township, Washington County, and 21,726 for Democratic challenger Bill Marx of Westmoreland County.
Pennsylvania had no races this year for U.S. Senate, but the 37th State Senatorial District saw Democrat Pam Iovino elected to her first full four-year term over Republican Devlin Robinson.
Peters Township went for Robinson 9,685 to 5,165. But when Allegheny County, including Iovino’s home base in Mount Lebanon was added, she appeared to be overwhelming Robinson, a Bridgeville resident.
Totals from both Washington and 68 of 214 precincts in Allegheny County were Iovino, 23,080, and Robinson, 16,656.
Peters is the sole community in Washington County included in the 37th.
Only odd-numbered senatorial districts were on the ballot this year.
Voters also had choices in state legislative districts.
Here are the totals for districts in Washington, Greene and Westmoreland counties:
15th: Republican incumbent Rep. Josh Kail, 9,842; Democrat Bob Williams, 2,894. The district includes parts of Washington, and the numbers reflect only these precincts, not their home county of Beaver.
39th: Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Puskaric, 3,429; Democrat Sara-Summer Oliphant, 3,210. The district includes parts of Washington and Allegheny counties.
40th: Republican incumbent Rep. Natalie Mihalek, 8,291; Democrat Sharon Guidi, 6,880. The district includes parts of Allegheny County and Peters Township in Washington County, and was a rematch of 2018.
46th: Republican incumbent Rep. Jason Ortitay, 10,326; Democrat Byron Timmons, 7,447. This was also a rematch from two years ago.
48th: Republican incumbent Rep. Tim O’Neal with 20,077 fended off a challenge from Democrat Harlan Shober, 14,176. Shober was, until this year, a Washington County commissioner. He was also a Chartiers Township supervisor.
49th: Republican incumbent Rep. Bud Cook, 14,452; Democrat Randy Barli, 8,571. The district includes parts of the Mon Valley in Washington and Fayette counties.
50th: Democratic incumbent Rep. Pam Snyder, 6,552; Republican Larry Yost, 7,356. The district includes all of Greene County and slivers of Washington and Fayette counties in the Mon Valley.
With more than 4,161 absentee and mail-in ballots not to be counted in Greene until Wednesday, the results were incomplete.
58th: Republican incumbent Rep. Eric Davanzo, 6,477; Democrat Robert Prah, 2,735. The district in Westmoreland County was a rematch of a special election March 17 to fill the seat that was vacated by Justin Walsh, who was elected judge of Common Pleas Court.
Washington County’s crew of 42 began tackling their tasks at 7 a.m. on Election Day – the earliest time allowed by law – and the workers were able to finish opening and scanning 36,795 mail-in and absentee ballots before 7 p.m.
The box for drop-off ballots had to remain in the lobby of the Courthouse Square office building, where it and the public meeting room, used for the processing of mail-in and absentee ballots, were guarded by three sheriff’s deputies until 8 p.m. when it was locked and the ballots were to be tabulated.
The ballots inserted in its slot were to be added to the total, and mail-in balloting totals were released shortly after 8 p.m. via the Washington County elections website.
“Everything is pretty quiet,” commission Vice Chairman Larry Maggi, who was out and about on Election Day, said just before 7 p.m. Tuesday. “So far, no major incidents at the polls.
Staff writer Karen Mansfield contributed to this story.