Area counties certify midterm election results
Elections boards in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties all certified their results from the Nov. 8 midterm on Monday after each conducted audits of random precincts as required by state law.
The results of both the “risk-limiting audit” and “2% statistical audit” were conducted earlier this month by canvass boards and matched the vote totals as reported on election night, clearing the way for the elections officials to certify the results and send them to the state.
Washington County officials took the unusual step of having its canvass board hand count 2,001 votes in five different precincts for the statistical audit, along with one Canonsburg precinct and 349 random mail-in ballots for the risk-limiting audit.
“We tried to go the extra mile to assure the voters that Washington County elections have been done accurately,” Commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan said of the reason why the canvass board performed a hand recount of select precincts to ensure they matched the machine tabulated results.
Even so, the county received 18 precinct challenges from people claiming fraud occurred despite providing no evidence of such. Of those challenges, 11 involved the governor’s race in which Democrat Josh Shapiro trounced Republican Doug Mastriano statewide by nearly 15% while narrowly losing Washington County to the GOP candidate by about 2%. Two of the challenges involve the U.S. Senate race while four petitions request recounts in both contests.
Four of petitions were filed by judges of elections alleging fraud at their own precincts despite those poll workers signing documentation on election night that the results submitted from their locations were “true and accurate.” The petitions have not been assigned to a judge in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas, so it’s not known when the objections will be heard or if court-ordered recounts will be mandated for any of the precincts.
While Washington County and other counties in Pennsylvania were bombarded with precinct challenges, there were no such petitions filed in Fayette or Greene counties.
Fayette County Elections Director MaryBeth Kuznik said their audits went well, allowing them to certify their election results Monday.
“Everything came out perfect,” Kuznik said. “As far as wee know, nobody has asked for any ballot box (recounts) or anything like that, so we should be OK.”
Greene County interim Elections Director Judy Snyder also said her county’s elections board certified its results Monday.
Turnout in all three counties was higher than typical midterm elections. Washington County led the way with 65.4% turnout, while Greene and Fayette followed close behind with 60.5% and 59.4% turnout, respectively.
Certified election results for the three counties can be found on each county’s elections office website.
Fayette County – 47,196 votes – 59.4% turnout
Greene County 13,287 votes – 60.5% turnout
Washington County – 94,493 votes – 65.4% turnout