Computer glitch excludes Westmoreland write-in winners; other results certified

Results from 14 Westmoreland County primaries were amended Monday to include additional winners after a weekend review of write-in votes identified discrepancies in how final totals were reported.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we wanted to review them,” said Election Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani.

Election officials said no additional votes were added to the results. A computer program that identified winners failed to include a handful of races where write-in candidates received enough votes to qualify for the November election.

Sebastiani said the glitch involved races where vacancies outnumbered candidates on the ballot.

County Commissioner Sean Kertes said the error was discovered when elections staffers compared write-in vote totals to the winners list after preliminary results were certified last week.

“We wanted to double and triple check the results. We didn’t want to miss counting any votes,” Kertes said.

The county received more than 35,000 write-in votes during the May 18 primary.

As a result, final certifications are delayed until next week for school board races in Burrell, Jeannette, Ligonier and New Kensington, as well as council races in Irwin, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, New Stanton, Southwest Greensburg, West Leechburg, Vandergrift and Youngwood. Two judges of election races in Penn Township also were delayed.

Westmoreland commissioners, sitting as the county’s elections board, voted Monday to approve final certification for hundreds of other races that appeared on the Republican and Democratic primary ballots, as well as the special election to fill the vacancy of the 59th District of the state House to replace Rep Mike Reese, who died in January.

Final certification also was delayed for two additional races after challenges of results were filed.

A challenge to results of the Southmoreland School Board, filed last week, alleged the election bureau did not list a vacant two-year seat on the ballot.

Another lawsuit was filed Monday, challenging the results of the Democratic primary for a supervisor seat in Sewickley. In that case, Jared Filapose claimed two write-in votes in which his name was not properly spelled were improperly rejected by the elections board.

According to the unofficial results, no candidates appeared on the Democratic primary ballot for Sewickley supervisor. Filapose received 19 write-in votes, one behind Bill Dull Sr., who declared the winner. Dull was the only candidate on the Republican ballot and easily won the GOP primary.

Hearings for both court challenges have not been scheduled.

Commissioners said they will certify outstanding races on June 15.