Cupp to appear on ballot in fall election for DA
There will be a race for Fayette County district attorney in November.
After a judge included an additional 60 write-in votes for John S. Cupp Jr. on Friday, his name will appear on the Republican ballot in the general election. Acting District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. secured the Democratic nod, which both men sought in the May primary.
Cupp waged a write-in campaign on the Republican ballot. He needed 250 votes to appear on the Republican ticket in the fall, and the election bureau counted 191 when the write-ins were tallied. Cupp filed a challenge to have an additional 60 votes counted.
Of those, 56 were written in as “Cupp,” two were written in as “J Cupp” and one each were written in as “John A. Cupp” and “John Cup.”
Cupp said he mailed out about 1,200 letters to the county’s registered Republicans asking them to write his name in on the Republican ballot. He also noted that poll workers handed out items at the polls that was “Cupp” for district attorney.
While Cupp’s wife, Emilie, is also an attorney, he argued in court that she was not running for district attorney.
He noted two cases — one involving a former district attorney and one involving a man who ran for Redstone Township supervisor — in which judges counted votes written in as only the candidate’s last name.
In the former of those cases, Nancy D. Vernon petitioned to get votes written in only as Vernon in her 1999 bid for district attorney. Heneks’ attorney, Ed Newcomer, noted that while some of the votes were counted, the ones in South Union Township where Vernon’s husband was running for a different office were not counted.
Judge Ralph C. Warman noted that the votes were not counted because Vernon’s husband was running for an office, and noted that Emilie Cupp was not running for anything.
Warman noted that, absent fraud, case law leaves it up to a judge to determine the intent of the voter.
“The write-ins on the Republican ballot — any write-in of the name Cupp or any variation of Mr. Cupp’s name — would be for attorney John Cupp,” Warman said. “Technicalities should not make the right to vote insecure.”
“Under the circumstances of this case, the voters’ intent is clear. The voters were voting for the petitioner, John Cupp,” Warman said.
In the primary, Heneks received 9,487 Democrat votes to Cupp’s 5,749.