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Write-in ballots make contested race for South Union Township supervisor

By Olivia Goudy ogoudy@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

While business owner Louis “Weeger” Agostini received the Democratic nod for the four-year seat for South Union Township supervisor in the primary, the incumbent, Jason Scott, appears to have secured the Republican nod with write-in votes.

With all 9,070 write-ins from the May 19 election counted, numbers released Friday by the Fayette County Election Bureau show that Scott, appointed to the post in 2013, received 164 Republican write-in votes that were counted as valid by the bureau.

Scott could not be reached for comment.

Agostini received 104, Election Bureau director Larry Blosser said, paving the way for a November showdown between the two. The necessary number of write-in votes to secure a place in a township race is 100.

Agostini also received 79 write-in votes for the Republican nod for the six-year term. “I’m looking forward to running in the fall,” said Agostini.

Incumbent Supervisor Robert Schiffbauer secured the Democrat nod. However, there were several other write-ins for Agostini on the Republican ticket that weren’t spelled correctly. Should he successfully challenge the discounted votes in court, Agostini could technically appear on the Republic ticket for both seats.

Agostini said he is still weighing his options as far as the challenge, which comes with a Wednesday deadline.

During the May 19 primary, Richard Bower secured the Democratic nomination for the office of District Attorney. Unofficial results indicate he also received 491 votes for the Republican ticket, securing his appearance on both ballots.

In the race for Springfield Township supervisor, William Miller received 52 votes on the Republican ballot. After tallying unofficial write-in ballots, challenger Roy Bowser accumulated 53 votes, narrowly defeating Miller to appear on the Republican ballot.

In the race for the Democrat nod for Springhill Township supervisor, Frank Lisauckis remained the leader with 25 votes while Robert Gene Grimm received 21 votes. Both candidates also had a multitude of spelling variations for other write-ins. Blosser said both candidates would stand to gain a significant amount of votes — votes that could potentially change the nomination — if challenged within five days of the unofficial results being reviewed and signed Friday. Candidates have until 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to file a challenge.

With candidates needing at least 100 votes to appear on the Republican ballot, neither Uniontown mayoral candidate — Ed Fike or Bernie Kasievich — successfully attained the needed votes with only 17 and 32 respectively. Kasievich bested Fike on the Democrat ballot to get that party’s nod.

In the county’s eight school boards and two magisterial district judge races, write-ins were a non-factor, as most candidates cross-filed.

Voters wrote in several candidates for county commissioner. None of the write-ins surpassed the number of votes Ambrosini, Vicites and Republican commissioner nominees Angela M. Zimmerlink and Dave Lohr received in the primary.

On the Democrat ticket, where Ambrosini and Vicites were the only two vying for two available nods, Sean Cavanagh, also a former commissioner, received 219 correctly spelled write-ins, and another 269 write-ins where his last name was spelled Cavanaugh. There were dozens of other variations of his first or last name written in.

Cavanagh said he pushed to be written-in via a Facebook campaign he mounted the Sunday before the election and was pleased with the outcome. He said he’s considering a run for office as an Independent in the fall.

“I think it shows people are dissatisfied with how things are going,” Cavanagh said Friday.

Jack Cole, who filed to run for the Democrat nod and then pulled out of the race, received 122 votes written in for him. He, too, has said he will consider a run as an Independent in November.

Lohr received 92 write-in votes, while Evelyn Hovanec received 173 write-ins from Democrats.

Cole, Lohr and Hovanec each also received other variations of their names written in.

Zimmerlink, the incumbent Republican commissioner, received 182 Democrat write-ins, along with a dozen other variations of the correct spelling of her name. Vincent Zapotosky, incumbent Democrat commissioner who said he will run as an Independent in the fall, received 17 write-in votes, along with several other variations of his name.

The number of write-ins on the Republican ballot were significantly lower. Cavanagh received 23 correctly spelled nods, Cole received 15 and Vicites receives 12.

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