Greene County results delayed as mail-in ballots are counted
WAYNESBURG – The unofficial election results in Greene County may not be known until the end of the week as workers began processing nearly 4,400 mail-in ballots Wednesday morning.
Nine workers divided into two teams spent the day “validating” each of the 4,385 ballots before they planned to remove them from their outer envelopes to start counting the votes.
While the counting of the ballots received before Election Day could be completed by Thursday or Friday, Greene County Elections Director Judy Snyder said the total results might not be available until Monday because they are continuing to receive – and segregate – any mail-in ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 but received by the end of the week.
“We gave ourselves until Monday, and I think that’s fair,” Snyder said about adding the final mail-in votes to the total.
That means it will take more time to determine who won the state’s 50th District House seat between incumbent Democratic Rep. Pam Snyder and Republican challenger Larry Yost. As of late Wednesday afternoon, Yost had 11,543 votes to Snyder’s 11,379, giving him a lead of just 164 votes.
Those vote totals include all in-person and mail-in voting in Washington County, all in-person and nearly 85% of mail-in voting in Fayette County, along with the Election Day total and 564 mail-in votes that have been processed in Greene County.
With Democrats overwhelmingly using mail-in voting this election, those 3,821 ballots left to be counted could prove vital for Snyder, whose campaign said it was “cautiously optimistic” about her chances once all the mail-in votes are tallied.
Yost said he was waiting to see the full results before commenting on his prospects.
“Let’s just hold off until the last count,” Yost said. “That’s all I’m really going to say about it.”
Fayette County voters overwhelmingly supported Snyder, both through in-person and mail-in votes. She received nearly one-third of her total 3,913 votes from mail-in, while Yost only received about 8% of his 2,454 votes through that voting method.
The 50th district includes all of Greene County, East Bethlehem Township and Centerville Borough in Washington County and Brownsville Borough, Brownsville Township, Luzerne Township, Masontown and Redstone Township in Fayette.
Greene County Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall said they expect to know the results of that race by Friday as they begin the canvassing of the official vote total. That process, which leads to the official vote total, could take several days. He said they were counting mail-in ballots that come in after Election Day up until Friday, but then segregating them in the event there is a legal challenge surrounding their eligibility.
“We’re basically running two elections now. The staff spent all day (Tuesday) running the election. I don’t know how you have a staff do both,” Marshall said. “We’ll get the public the numbers as fast as we can, but they’ll be validated numbers.”
Gov. Tom Wolf praised county election officials across the state for their diligent work to handle the historic turnout and count the influx of mail-in ballots.
“The promise of democracy is that every vote counts. … I intend to keep that promise,” Wolf said. “The delays that we’re seeing is a sign that the system is working.”
Wolf pushed back on calls by President Donald Trump for the vote count to be halted prematurely. Trump’s campaign on Wednesday signaled it wanted the vote count to be stopped.
“Make no mistake, our democracy is being tested in this election,” he said. “We will vigorously defend any attempt to attack that vote.”
Staff writer Brad Hundt and Herald-Standard managing editor Jen Garofalo contributed to this story.