‘Deja vu’ in 39th District
Absentee ballots cast by voters in Washington County could determine the winner in the 39th Legislative District, just as they did two years ago.
“It’s deja vu,” said Washington County Elections Director Larry Spahr.
No date has been set to tabulate results from absentee ballots in the contest between incumbent Republican Rick Saccone of Elizabeth and Democrat David Levdansky of Forward Township, who held the seat for 25 years before being ousted two years ago.
But Spahr said when the Washington County canvass board is sworn in Friday, he’ll ask them to separate absentee ballots in the race so they can be counted as quickly as possible, perhaps as soon as next week.
According to unofficial results from the Allegheny and Washington County websites, Saccone holds a 36-vote edge over Levdansky, 14,274 votes to 14,238.
Unlike Washington County, Allegheny County counts its absentee ballots on election night.
It could not immediately be determined Wednesday how many provisional ballots may have been cast in the race.
Calls to Saccone and Levdansky by the Observer-Reporter were not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.
Julie Blust, communications director for an organization known as Pennsylvania Working Families, based in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, campaigned on Levdansky’s behalf in Buena Vista, Clairton, Elizabeth, West Elizabeth, Monongahela and Finleyville.
“We sent a mailing to 7,500 voters, and we knocked on roughly 4,000 doors,” Blust said. “We know we had to have made a difference.”
The issues for which the advocates, according to Blust, include fair taxes, funding for local schools and closing corporate tax loopholes, “which we know Rep. Levdansky has fought for in the past,” Blust said.
On election night, the Allegheny County website was not showing any results, and the Pennsylvania Department of State website showed Levdansky with a 125-vote lead with 98 percent of the precincts reporting. It was not known which precinct or precincts were not reporting results.
Saccone, a political science professor at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, defeated Levdansky two years ago in a squeaker of an election, 10,737 to Levdansky’s 10,593.