Nearly half of all Westmoreland write-in votes came from Greater Latrobe school board races

Nov. 8—When John Petrarca saw the number of write-in votes in the Greater Latrobe school board election for four-year seats, he said it was "hard to believe."

Nearly half of the 22,259 total write-in votes cast in Tuesday's election in Westmoreland County were done so in the two races for Latrobe school board. In all, 10,908 names were written in by voters.

Petrarca, 64, of Latrobe was one of the individuals citizens were writing in, thanks to what he called a "grassroots effort" by locals who approached him to represent a write-in campaign.

"This was totally an organic grassroot movement of concerned citizens in Latrobe," said Petrarca, a registered Republican.

Tom Gockel was another candidate written in for the four-year term race, along with Patrick S. Carney in the two-year term race.

The effort to upend the Republican and Democrat candidates who appeared on the school board ballot led to the most write-in votes cast during a general election cycle in years, according to county officials.

Last spring, 18,000 write-in votes were cast in hundreds of Republican and Democrat primary races across the ballot, and about 12,000 write-in votes were cast in the 2022 general election, according to the county election bureau.

Write-in votes accounted for more than 24% of the 28,396 total votes cast in the four-year term Latrobe race — beating out all of the candidates listed on the ballot, according to Westmoreland County's unofficial election results.

In the four-year term race, after the write-in votes came out on top, incumbent Merle L. Musick received more than 18% of votes, newcomer John Urban received 17% of votes, newcomer Bradley Toman received slightly more than 10% of votes, current board President Eric Hauser just under 10% of votes, incumbent Susan Mains received more than 9% of votes and incumbent Michael Zorch received about 9% of votes.

In the two-year term race, incumbent Rhonda Laughlin received more than 61% of the vote compared to the write-in votes, which totaled 38%.

Petrarca said he sees some recent issues as catalysts for the large write-in vote total — namely, the district's recently approved multimillion-dollar revitalization project, which is set to raise taxes a total of 24 mills by 2039.

"That's really awakened the community to take a personal interest in what's going on," Petrarca said. "In this area, people are just paying attention more."

The resolution to move forward with the revitalization plan passed during the September board meeting 5-4. Of those who ran in the general election, Hauser, Laughlin, Mains and Zorch voted in favor of the plan, and Musick voted no.

Now retired, Petrarca is a former teacher who also worked in the health care industry for over 30 years. He's lived in the Latrobe community for a "long time," and he said he was "pleasantly surprised and a little bit shocked" by the unofficial totals.

"It just kind of goes to show you that people are paying attention to what's going on around them," Petrarca said.

Petrarca said he was approached by "everyday people" in the community asking him if they could write in his name.

"People on the street were coming up," Petrarca said. "I said, 'That's not going to work.'"

He thought it would be very difficult to win a write-in campaign, and while the results won't be initially certified until Nov. 21, the chances are looking good.

Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey said it will take up to 10 days for staff to manually count each write-in vote. It's a process that involves examining and assessing every vote to determine if they are eligible to be counted. Names incorrectly spelled won't automatically be disqualified.

"If one letter is wrong on a first or second name, we'll still count them," McCloskey said.

Fictional names, of which there are expected to by many listed throughout the ballots and in the Latrobe school board races, won't be included in the final tally.

Overall, voter turnout exceeded expectations, as nearly 40% of the county's more than 244,000 registered voters cast ballots in the general election. That number includes 163 provisional ballots that were cast at the polls on Tuesday, according to McCloskey.

Petrarca said he believes local taxpayers are looking for new faces to "make common-sense decisions," and the write-in vote total is a "testament" to the people in the community.

"I didn't ask to do this; they've asked me to step up," Petrarca said. "I did nothing — I did no campaigning whatsoever."

However, he said he will try to make the school board a little stronger if he's elected to the board.

"I'm not a one-issue person," Petrarca said. "I want to make Latrobe an outstanding school."

Gockel, 50, of Latrobe, is a registered Republican, and as a write-in candidate for the four-year term race, he said the unofficial results show that "the taxpayers are mad."

"You got these senior citizens living in Latrobe, in Unity Township ... these tax increases are going to kill them," Gockel said. He cited already rising expenses like food and medicine.

Gockel, who is a school bus driver for DMJ Transportation and works a second job at Threshold, a mental health facility in Greensburg, said the write-in campaign started around the end of September — right after the revitalization plan was passed.

"It came as a surprise, I think, to a lot of people ... that they voted on it when they did," Gockel said, saying how local taxpayers felt their voices weren't being heard.

Some citizens said that they weren't made aware of the community input meetings held over the 19 months leading up to the board's decision.

Gockel said his main goal will be trying to save taxpayers money if he wins a seat when the results are certified. He said he talked to some while passing out flyers at polling places.

"They were scared," Gockel said. "There was like over an hour wait to vote yesterday at (the) Twin Lakes (polling place) because everyone was writing in — it shows taxpayers were fed up."

Two years ago, Gockel ran for the school board but lost during the primary. And this time, he has a chance of winning while not even being on the ballot.

If he wins a seat, Gockel wants to advocate for more mental health assistance in the district for kids, along with possible different avenues to "save the taxpayers money" in relation to the revitalization plan. He said he wants "quality education."

"(I) truly appreciate all the votes that we got ... it's humbling," Gockel said.

Petrarca said he will go in with the attitude of trying to do what's best for Latrobe.

"You gotta listen to the majority of the people in the community ... because they're paying attention now," Petrarca said.

Election officials said the write-in votes are expected to be counted and included as part of the official tallies when the election board meets Nov. 21 to issue the first of two certifications of results.

"We are going to do everything we can do to have this done by the 21st," McCloskey said.

Candidates will then be able to challenge those results before a final certification is issued on Nov. 27.