Westmoreland Democrats leadership vote delayed in fallout over GOP Senate primary vote count

Despite the fact that David McCormick dropped out of the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, it was the fallout from the continued fight over votes that prompted Westmoreland County Democrats on Friday to indefinitely postpone their weekend meeting to elect a new party chairperson.

Democratic Committee Chairwoman Tara Yokopenic said party officials were left no choice but to cancel the gathering Saturday at Hempfield Park after Westmoreland officials on Friday afternoon announced the county would not break ties in deadlocked races.

“This is unprecedented, and, based on advice from our solicitor, we postponed our reorganization meeting,” Yokopenic said. “We had to suspend our bylaws. This is completely out of our hands, and the meeting will not be rescheduled until the vote is certified.”

The party’s decision came hours after county leaders abruptly canceled a meeting at noon Friday to determine winners in tied races through the random casting of lots. County solicitor Melissa Guiddy said a Thursday night ruling issued by the state’s Commonwealth Court that ordered undated and incorrectly dated mail-in ballots to be counted led to suspension of the tie-breaking procedure.

That court ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by GOP Senate candidate David McCormick asking to count undated mail-in ballots. McCormick remained fewer than 1,000 votes behind Dr. Mehmet Oz as state election officials awaited results from a recount ordered last week. Westmoreland election officials completed the county’s recount Friday afternoon.

On Friday evening, McCormick announced he was dropping out of the race, but that still leaves the results uncertified.

Guiddy said the county will count 69 undated and incorrectly dated mail-in ballots on Tuesday.

“Given that court order, we’re not certain if that will extend to all races,” Guiddy said.

Westmoreland election officials said 157 Democratic committee seats races, involving 615 candidates, ended in ties. Another 177 races for Republican committee positions with 1,064 candidates also ended in deadlocks that were to be broken on Friday.

County officials said it is unknown how many committee races will be impacted by the counting of undated mail-in ballots.

Yokopenic said earlier this week the party would move forward with its reorganization before the county issued a final certification of election results with the assumption that ties would be broken on Friday. Democratic committee bylaws stipulated the reorganization had to be convened Saturday.

All of the committee’s 614 seats were up for grabs on the May primary ballot. Only 10% of the available committee posts were filled by candidates who appeared on the ballots. The remaining seats will be determined by write-in candidates and many of those races now remain tied.

Because the outcomes of so many committee races are unresolved, Yokopenic said, the party had no choice but to delay its gathering.

“It’s not good, but it’s a fair thing to do,” Yokopenic said.