State Sen. Brewster now tied with challenger Ziccarelli in 45th District race

Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli has pulled into a tie with Democratic incumbent state Sen. Jim Brewster in the race for the 45th District seat.

Ziccarelli, a New Kensington lawyer, was trailing Brewster by 28 votes late Thursday afternoon, but she made up those votes as the tally from the Westmoreland County portion of the district were updated Thursday night. The district also includes part of Allegheny County.

Westmoreland elections officials on Thursday completed initial reviews of about 3,600 provisional ballots cast at the polls on Election Day and started to tally those votes, including 280 from the 42 precincts that are in the 45th state Senate District.

Ziccarelli received 169 additional votes from Westmoreland’s provisional ballots to Brewster’s 141.

A write-in candidate got one vote.

The outcome of the race is far from decided, though.

State Commonwealth Court ruled Thursday evening that 2,349 undated mail-in ballots in Allegheny County ought not to be counted. Her campaign has also asked the court to halt the counting of about 300 provisional ballots that were subject to another challenge she lost Wednesday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Meanwhile, a hearing will be conducted Friday before Westmoreland Common Pleas Court Judge Harry Smail Jr. on a Ziccarelli campaign request to overturn the county Board of Elections decision made this week to count about 250 provisional ballots. In those instances, voters were directed by county employees to sign poll books on Election Day.

Ziccarelli campaign lawyers contend commissioners, who serve as the county’s elections board, should only accept ballots from 46 voters who testified before the elections board or submitted signed affidavits in which they attested to not voting on precinct machines.

Work to finish counting Westmoreland ballots continued Thursday.

Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said all provisional ballots cast had been reviewed and counting of those votes was underway. Work was slowed as a coronavirus outbreak among elections bureau staff and safety concerns by volunteers left county officials scrambling to finish the job.

“We had only four of our original board members who were present for all eight days,” Sebastiani said.

Westmoreland’s elections board is slated to meet Friday morning to adjudicate the remaining challenges lodged against provisional ballots.

County officials said they anticipate issuing a pre-certification of the election results on Nov. 23, which is five days behind schedule.

State elections officials did not respond to questions about the delays in Westmoreland and the impact on the final certification of Pennsylvania’s results. Instead, it issued a statement that acknowledged the delay.

“The Department of State has been closely in touch with and providing support to Westmoreland County as they work hard to conclude the tallying of their vote counts and certification. All 67 counties are actively working on their certification documentation and tabulations,” wrote spokeswoman Ellen Lyon.