Cook’s lead narrows to 14 votes in 49th Legislative race
Washington County elections office worker Troy Breese sorts absentee ballots received by mail in advance of the Nov. 6 election.
Toprani
Cook
Any military and overseas civilian ballots, postmarked no later than Nov. 5 in the ever-so-close 49th Legislative District race, had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to arrive at election offices in Washington and Uniontown to be counted today.
Eleven Washington County provisional ballots found to be worthy of a “full count” on Friday narrowed Republican State Rep. Bud Cook’s lead to 14 votes over Democratic challenger Steve Toprani, so candidates and their representatives will be watching for any changes in vote totals this week.
Totals of Washington and Fayette County unofficial election night results, absentee ballots and provisional ballots show 9,933 for Cook and 9,919 for Toprani.
The lead Cook, 62, of West Pike Run Township, held on election night has been shrinking, but he has narrowly led former Washington County district attorney Toprani, 39, of Carroll Township.
A “full count” of provisional ballots means that the voter met residency requirements for the 49th District, followed the correct procedure and was deemed eligible to vote for federal, state and legislative district offices.
Provisional ballots are given to voters as an option when their names do not appear on lists of registered voters provided by the county to local election boards.
Of the 21 remaining unopened provisional ballots, Cook has challenged the validity of 13, Toprani has challenged seven and both sides have challenged a single provisional ballot.
The Washington County Elections Board, made up of the three Washington County commissioners, will convene Thursday morning to weigh the validity of each of the challenged ballots which remain inside sealed envelopes.
“We won’t know until they decide which ones to count,” Washington County Assistant Director of Elections Melanie Ostrander said of the contents.
The Washington County elections office mailed notifications Friday to those who cast the provisional ballots being questioned so that voters can testify Thursday in front of the elections board about the procedure used at the polls.
The results of two provisional ballots cast in the 49th District in Fayette County were not available Tuesday.
The staff of the Washington County elections office also found a ballot that turned up in materials from Carroll Township’s fourth precinct.
An overseas voter used the fvap.gov website to print a ballot and mark it, but he or she did not cast a vote in the 49th Legislative District race.
Ostrander said the absentee ballot was overlooked because the envelope in which it was mailed was different from that of the envelope issued by the elections office.
It was an example of what Washington County Director of Elections Larry Spahr called “undervote.” On 242 ballots in the 49th District, the voter chose neither candidate and did not write in someone else’s name.
On 30 ballots, the voter wrote in the name of someone other than the two nominees in the 49th District.
“I’ve seen elections determined on one or two votes,” Spahr said.
Provisional ballots were legislated into existence in Congress’ Help America Vote Act of 2002 in the wake of the George W. Bush-Al Gore presidential election dispute that went on for months.
Thirteen years passed before provisional ballots decided a major contest in Washington County.
A count of both absentee and provisional ballots gave incumbent Washington County Commissioner Harlan Shober, a Democrat, an edge of slightly more than 30 votes over his Republican challenger Mike McCormick in the 2015 commissioners’ race.
Shober overcame a 67-vote election night deficit.