Fayette, Greene counties among lowest voter turnout in Pennsylvania
Washington Co. just above statewide average of 55.3%
Fayette and Greene counties had among the lowest voter turnout in Pennsylvania for last week’s midterm elections despite several competitive races up and down the ballot.
At just 48.7%, Fayette County had the second lowest turnout in the state, just behind Philadelphia County, which turned out only 45% of all registered voters, according to PolticsPA.com.
Greene County had the fifth lowest turnout at 50.9%, even with hotly contested races for state House and Senate on the ballot.
Washington County saw voter turnout surge to 56.6% for the midterms, which put it around midpack for the 67 counties and right in line with the statewide average of 55.3%. More than 5 million votes were cast in Pennsylvania during last Tuesday’s midterm election.
Fayette County Elections Director Marybeth Kuznik said she was surprised where the county fell in overall turnout in the state because she thought it was relatively strong for a midterm election.
“We were approaching 50%, which is not bad,” Kuznik said.
Election officials were canvassing the vote Monday and she said the approximately 260 provisional ballots cast by voters would be checked this morning to determine whether they can be counted. The inclusion of the provisional ballots, along with any last-minute arrivals of overseas and military ballots that are due today, could boost turnout to around 49%.
“There are still a lot of ballots left to be added,” Kuznik said.
She said her office was still working with the state Department of State to determine how about 300 mail-in ballots were never sent to voters. That issue prompted the county’s election bureau to send notification out the Friday before the election asking people who didn’t get their ballot to vote with “on-demand” ballots at the elections office or provisionally at their precinct.
Turnout may have been down compared to the rest of the state because although there was a competitive state Senate race between Republican incumbent Pat Stefano and Democratic challenger Jacob Cecil – an election Stefano won handily – there were no candidates running against Republican state representatives Charity Grimm-Krupa and Ryan Warner.
But there were plenty of competitive races in Washington County, which may have led to the higher voter turnout there. The race between Republican state Sen. Camera Bartolotta and independent candidate Jodi Borello generated a lot of statewide interest, with Bartolotta winning her fourth term in office. Each of the six state House races for districts in Washington County were contested, adding intrigue to the midterm election.
“It was better than I expected,” Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said of turnout after originally predicting it would be around 50%.
Meanwhile, it does not appear there will be another hearing to discuss the 23 votes cast using special emergency ballots at the Chartiers-3 precinct after the electronic poll book malfunctioned and the judge of elections failed to have voters sign in for a two-hour window. A hearing was held last Tuesday night before Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Traci McDonald to remove the judge of elections from the precinct and extend voting at the precinct another two hours until 10 p.m. County officials said 10 of the 23 people who voted with the special emergency ballots returned to the precinct to vote provisionally, which will be counted.
Canvassing in Washington County started Friday and continued Monday, and provisional, overseas and military ballots will be counted today. The hand count of 10 random precincts as part of the automatic audit will take place Thursday and Friday.