Leechburg Area School Board race flips after official votes are certified

After general election votes were certified Monday, Leechburg Area School District saw one race for a four-year board seat flip.

Rather than losing a spot by 10 votes, which unofficial results showed on election night, Neill Brady earned six more votes than newcomer Janie Borsh Symons to secure a four-year term seat. Brady got 877 total votes and Borsh Symons received 871.

Brady previously served from 2003 to 2023.

Vote counts can, and often do, change from election night until the time they’re certified. After polls close on Election Day, county election officials will publish initial, unofficial results and begin the process of finalizing the results.

This means they double and triple-check the records from each precinct, hear legal challenges to absentee and mail-in ballots, decide whether to count provisional ballots, review the overall conduct of the election and count all the eligible votes before tallying the results.

Voters have up to six days after the election to demonstrate that their “provisional” ballot should be counted.

Because they are received later, military and overseas absentee ballots ane not able to be counted with the unofficial results that come out election night.

Leechburg Area School Board will welcome three new faces on the board and retain two incumbents.

Incumbent Darius Lovelace was the top vote-getter with 1,116 votes across Leechburg, West Leechburg and Gilpin.

Candi Stewart, another incumbent, received 1,005 votes. Newcomer Danielle Reinke received 1,043 votes in her bid to return to the board. She previously served from 2010 until 2014.

Newcomer Becky Blas got 861 votes to secure a two-year seat on the board.

Board members will be sworn-in in December.