Election challenges delay certification of local races in Fayette County
Petitions challenging the Republican Party’s primary election results in seven Fayette County precincts are delaying the final certification of the vote, which was supposed to be completed last month.
Seven petitions were filed in June asking for a court-ordered hand recount of the Republican county commissioners race in Connellsville Township, Dunbar Borough, South Connellsville Borough, Georges Township’s third precinct and all three precincts in Bullskin Township.
A hearing was held Thursday morning before Fayette County Court of Common Pleas Judge John Wager, who scheduled an evidentiary hearing at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 22 to listen to the challengers and make a ruling on whether those precincts should be recounted.
Initially, 23 petitions were filed in various precincts across the county challenging the GOP commissioners race following the May 16 primary. However, three were ruled invalid and the other 20 were dismissed by the county’s elections board when none of the challengers attended a June 12 hearing to discuss their petitions.
The board then held its first signing to certify the election on June 16, but seven of the 20 challengers filed a petition for reconsideration with the Court of Common Pleas to have their complaints heard. While the statewide elections were certified by the board, the local, school board and county races remain in limbo until a decision can be made on the Republican commissioners’ race.
Incumbent commissioners Dave Lohr and Scott Dunn won the two Republican nominations with Lohr receiving 5,760 votes and Dunn getting 5,327. Challenger Jon R. Marietta Jr. was closest to Dunn’s total with 5,206 votes, while Robert Gene Grimm lagged behind with 2,129. The number of votes in the seven precincts account for fewer than 2,000 votes out of the 11,883 voters who cast their ballots in the Republican Party primary.
The Aug. 22 hearing will tighten the timeline when most counties had already certified their elections by the state’s June 5 deadline. Fayette County Elections Bureau Director MaryBeth Kuznik said she’s confident that they’ll be ready to move forward with the Nov. 7 general election despite the delays.
“We have time, but it makes the timeframe tighter,” she said. “We have to be mindful and want to make sure everything is right and ready for November. And it will be.”
Kuznik said she will recommend to the elections board’s members that they certify all of the races except the county commissioners results in the seven precincts in order to let write-in candidates know whether they will be on the fall ballot.
“I’m confident we’ll definitely get the election ready and that it goes off on time,” Kuznik said.
Elections board members Robert Lesnick, Mark Rowan and John Kopas did not respond to phone messages seeking comment. County solicitor Jack Purcell and elections board attorney Sheryl Heid also could not be reached for comment.