May 17, 2007 1 min read

VENANGO, Pa. (AP) – About half of the 171 registered voters in this tiny northwestern Pennsylvania borough came out to vote in Tuesday’s primary, an impressive turnout considering there were no local candidates on the ballot. Nominations were up for grabs for borough council, tax collector, auditor and assessor, but no candidates filed nomination petitions in time to appear on the ballot. As a result, voters had to cast write-in votes if they wanted to vote to nominate someone to run for those offices in November.

Still, Republican Committee member Norma Woodward said nobody was really worried about the lack of candidates because the 288 residents of this town about 95 miles north of Pittsburgh know each other well.

“Because we know one another, we know who might be interested, who knows what’s going on and who has the interests of the community at heart,” Woodward said.

Crawford County elections officials said 22 write-in votes were cast for nominations to a four-year borough council seat, though as few as five votes were cast to nominate people to run for two-year council terms. The names of those candidates were not immediately available Wednesday.

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Information from: Erie Times-News, http://www.goerie.com

AP-ES-05-16-07 1922EDT