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Zimmerman, Coder receive Dem nod for Greene County commissioner

By Steve Barrett for The 4 min read

After absentee ballots were counted, 18 votes separate a former Greene County commissioner from an incumbent, both of whom were seeking the Democratic nod to appear on the November ballot.

Dave Coder, a commissioner from 1996 to 2010, received 2,558 votes to incumbent Charles “Chuck” Morris’ 2,540 votes, according to the unofficial vote count released by the county election bureau.

Because Blair Zimmerman, the other incumbent Democrat commissioner, received 2,999 votes, the votes received by Morris and Coder would determine which of the men would appear alongside Zimmerman as a Democrat candidate in November.

Late Tuesday evening, Coder was ahead of Morris by 24 votes. However, officials at the election bureau said 170 Democrat absentee ballots would be counted Wednesday. Those votes changed the total slightly, but still showed Coder with more votes.

Zimmerman was appointed to the seat in December 2012 after his predecessor, Pam Snyder, was elected state representative for the 50th district. Morris came into the office in August 2010, and has served as chairman since late 2012 after Snyder’s departure.

In the race for the GOP nod for commissioner, there were two candidates running for the opportunity to be placed on the November election ballot. According to unofficial results, incumbent Archie Trader led with 1,462 votes, while challenger Keith McClure received 1,170 votes.

Trader, a two-term incumbent, was elected in 2006, and McClure is a first-time candidate for the seat.

The top two vote-getters from the Democratic and Republican races will vie for the three commission seats in the November general election.

In the race for a judgeship in the Court of Common Pleas, Jeff Grimes appears to have secured the GOP nod and Lou Dayich the Democrat nod.

Grimes, Dayich and David J. Russo all cross-filed, seeking the seat that was vacated when William Nalitz reached mandatory retirement age, and stepped down in December.

On the Democrat ticket, Dayich received 2,797 votes; Grimes 2,090 votes and Russo 264 votes, according to unofficial tallies. The Republican tallies showed Grimes with 1,338 votes, Dayich with 769 votes and Russo with 123 votes.

Dayich is currently serving as magisterial district judge, and Grimes and Russo both have private offices in Greene County.

In the Carmichaels Area School District, residents nominated five to the school board from a field of seven Democrat and six Republican candidates. Receiving the Democrat and Republican nods were Cheryl Severini Voytek, Kenneth A. Ganocy, Ronald T. Ferek, Lewis G. May and Thomas M. Ricco.

Melodie J. Berardi, who cross-filed, and Sheldon Reynolds, who filed to run as a Democrat, did not receive sufficient votes to move on to the November election, according to unofficial tallies.

Carmichaels was the only district with a race for school board.

Jefferson-Morgan School District, there were five available seats, and five candidates who cross-filed. Those candidates are: John W. Shaffer III, Dan Wagner, Donna L. Brown, Lisa Mattish and Brittany Anderson Morrison.

In Southeastern Greene School District, while there were five available seats, three candidates cross-filed to fill the school board positions. Joe Spiker, J.R. Antill and Ginny Eberhart each received Democrat and GOP nods.

In Central Greene School District, where voting is still done by region, no candidates filed to run in Regions 1 or 2. In Region 3, where two seats were open, only one candidate, Sharon Bennett, filed and will appear on both the Democrat and Republican ballots in November.

The regional voting system is also used in West Greene School District; however, no one filed to run in Region 2. In Region 1, Tim Mankey was the lone candidate who cross-filed and will appear on both ballots in November, and in Region 3, where there are two seats available, Clarence Cassiday Jr. and Mike G. Pikula were the only two candidates. Both men cross-filed.

The county election bureau reported that 7,285 of the county’s 19,341 registered voters, or 37.6 percent, cast ballots in Tuesday’s election.

Election office workers in Greene County said no major problems were reported by voters using the county’s touch screen iVotronic voting system at the polling places. The county has been using the iVotronic system since the 2006 primary election. The iVotronic machines are similar to the UniLect electronic system that the county had used since 1998 before they were decertified in 2005 by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Tina Kiger, Greene County elections director, commended the efficiency of the elections office and the district boards, who she said were well-prepared for the election.

Kiger said the election results were unofficial and said the canvass board is convening on Friday morning in the elections office, which is the first step toward officially certifying the results of the primary.

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