Somerset County computation board releases final election counts. What about write ins?
More than 1,000 write-in votes in the municipal primary of May 16 did not make a noticeable difference in the final outcome of the 2023 municipal primary in Somerset County.
Nor did the provisional ballots cause any upsets with countywide seats, according to county elections director Tina Pritts.
The county's computation board wrapped up its work of reviewing and adding the provisional ballots Friday.
"Any election results that come before the computation board meets are unofficial," she said. "The computation board looks at all the results that come in and then they add the provisional ballots counts."
Why provisional ballots
Sometimes county elections officials need more time to determine a voter's eligibility.
Some examples of what can happen to cause an election official to ask a voter to cast a provisional ballot on election day at the precinct:
A voter reports to the wrong precinct so that person's name is not on the voting roll.
The voter was required to show identification as a first-time voter but did not have one.
The voter believed he or she is registered in one political party but the record indicates otherwise.
Write-ins change nothing on ballot
"There was not enough to change the outcome of the nomination on the ballot," Pritts said about write-ins.
Unfolding: Day after the primary. How is it shaping up for November general election in Somerset County?
Somerset County had about a predicted 35 percent voter turnout, with 12,139 Republican voters and 3,988 Democrat voters, whihc saw two Republicans, Brian Fochtman and Irv Kimmel, and two Democrats, Pamela Tokar-Ickes and James Shepley, earn nods for Somerset County commissioner. In the high sheriff race, Dustin Weir, who battled in a three-way Republican race, pick up the more than 100 votes to win the Democrat nomination for the position.
Candidates needed at least 10 votes and the majority to win a party nomination. The candidates did not have to be a member of the party to receive the nomination.
In a primary, registered party voters cannot cross party lines. The primary is strictly for the Democrats and for the Republicans to nominate their candidates to run in the general election in the fall.
Write-ins are separate
The write ins will not affect, for example, the commissioners race, Pritts said.
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot, but voters can cast a vote for that person for a specific position by writing that person's name on the ballot. Where it seems to make a difference in municipal elections where the top vote getters are a smaller number.
For example, in Meyersdale Council, there are four slots open to candidates. The top four vote getters, all Republicans, in the primary were Clarence Baer with 218, Jeff Irwin, 125, Tom Smith, 41, and Jeff Christner, 35. With the write-in votes, depending on the accumulation, the fifth vote-getter in the race, Ronnie Ackerman, 31, with his write-in votes of 84 may be able to move up to the top four, replacing Jeff Christner, who had 73 write ins.
Incumbents without competition
Some of the incumbents actively ran a campaign to be the official nominee for the opposing party for their positions.
For example, In the clerk of courts election, there was no Democrat candidate. Rose Svonavec was the Republican candidate and the incumbent. She sent out letters and ran an active campaign to obtain the Democrat nomination. She needed the minimum of 100 write-in votes to do so and she received 399.
Svonavec is the official nominee for both parties for the position of clerk of courts once she officially accepts the nominations. Candidate who have not reached enough votes to be the nominee for a party in November can request accumulating the write-in votes (along with any votes cast if their name is on the ballot) to get there. This requires a hearing before the county election board.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Somerset County computation board releases final primary counts
