Jun 12, 2009 2 min read

Two incumbent politicians have filed separate petitions with the Fayette County Prothonotary’s office asking that write-in votes disallowed by Fayette County Election Bureau director Laurie Lint be counted. Redstone Township Supervisor Larry P. Williams is asking the court to allow a write-in vote on the Republican ballot for L. Williams to be counted in his favor. Counting the vote would break a tie for the Republican nomination. The official count signed by the Board of Elections this week showed Williams tied with challenger Dan Yocabet with 21 votes each. A vote for L. Williams was not counted. Williams contends that he is the only L. Williams in the township, so the vote should be counted, giving him a one-vote margin and eliminating Yocabet from the November ballot. Although election night results showed Yocabet with a slight lead in the race for the Democratic nomination, the official count gave Williams a slight edge with a tally of 506 to 493 once all of the paper ballots were counted.

Brownsville Mayor Lewis Hosler is also petitioning to have Republican write-in votes counted in his favor. As the official count now stands, Hosler, who was unopposed, has the Democratic nomination, but would face Lester Ward who defeated him 25-17 for the Republican nomination. There are at least nine write-in votes featuring some variation or misspelling of his name, plus several others that are partial renderings of his name, but are not the name he used on the ballot.

Judge Gerald Solomon will hear motions in Hosler’s case today, with a possible court date to be set later. Williams’ case will be in motions court before Judge Ralph Warman Monday.