Fayette, Greene counties vote for Trump in high-turnout election
Fayette County officials continued counting a small number of mail-in ballots Wednesday evening in a high turnout election that locally favored President Donald J. Trump.
More than 70% of registered voters cast ballots Tuesday, with 58,158 ballots cast among 82,380 registered voters, according to unofficial election results.
About 15% of mail-in ballots remained uncounted Wednesday evening. County election bureau director Larry Blosser said they hoped to have the remaining votes counted by the end of the day. Officials were counting votes until nearly 3 a.m. Wednesday.
“It was a trying day for everyone,” he said.
Both Fayette and Greene counties pulled for President Donald J. Trump over former vice president Joe Biden. Trump received 67.6% of the vote in Fayette to Biden’s 31.6%.
The majority of the Trump votes – 34,964 of the 39,182 he received in Fayette – were made in person. Biden’s 18,359 votes were nearly evenly split between those mailed in (9,022) and those cast in person (9,337).
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, 2,457 mail-in ballots were uncounted, or about 15% of the 15,871 cast.
Trump’s victory margin in Greene County was even higher, but the county didn’t start counting its 4,370 mail-in ballots until Wednesday morning. Officials have said they hope to have that process completed later this week.
Eighty-two percent of Greene’s in-person voters (10,708) pulled for Trump, while almost 17% (2,210) voted for Biden.
Blosser thanked the workers and officials for their hard work and support in the election, saying they met many challenges in accommodating changes to the election process.
“The boards need to be thanked for everything that they did, and the people that helped us here from the courthouses,” he said. “I think we did pretty good.”
George Rattay, chairman of the Fayette County Democratic Party, said he was disappointed the county favored Trump with more registered Democrats in Fayette. He predicted the state’s results would be made available Thursday or Friday.
After Michigan was declared for Trump by NBC News on Wednesday afternoon, Rattay noted a Biden win in Nevada would earn him the 270 points in the electoral college he needs to win the presidency.
“If Joe Biden wins Nevada, then he’s the next president of the United States,” Rattay said, and added, “Unless the courts jump in and something crazy happens.”
Bill Kozlovich, chairman of the Republican Party of Fayette County, expects that elections will be challenged in court in multiple states.
“I have no doubt,” he said. “There is no doubt in my mind that it’s going to draw out.”
He echoed Trump’s claims that election bureaus are “trying to find” votes for Biden as they count mail-in ballots, which were more heavily requested by Democrats. He further addressed the number of provisional ballots issued, especially in regard to mail-in ballots. Some people called him saying they received mail-in ballots they never requested.
“I’ve had so many calls, complaints and questions,” he said. “There is most definitely a problem with mail-in ballots.”
He further contested the legitimacy of ballots received after Election Day.
“If you have an election on Election Day, the first Tuesday of the month, that should be Election Day,” he said. “I’ll fight for that tooth and nail.”
Rattay said every ballot should be counted, as should be standard in every election.
“When that process is over, if Joe Biden is the president of the United States, I’m elated. If Donald Trump is elected again for another four years, that’s how democracy works,” he said.
Rattay said Trump has a right to challenge the election in court, and expects he will.
“He has that right, as any candidate does. But to make statements like ‘The election is rigged,’ that’s ludicrous,” he said. “If Joe Biden wins then what he’s going to say again is ‘I was robbed. The system is rigged.”
Rattay also noted he received multiple phone calls Wednesday about false rumors on social media, like claims that Sharpies could not be used to cast ballots. He encouraged people to fact check things they read on social media.
Kozlovich said he thought Pennsylvania should have been called for Trump Tuesday night, before mail-in and absentee ballots were counted in many places. He said the results so far were positive for Trump. Awaited results from remaining states, including Pennsylvania, could swing the election, he said.
He called on state legislators to fix problems he sees in the election process.
“Hopefully we cure our problem with elections. Somebody needs to sit down and really think about how they do it,” he said.
Rattay said if Biden wins, he thinks the country can be unified.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’ll only get things done by working together,” he said. “We need to go in the same direction, because we’re not going to get things done with the way we’re going.”