Westmoreland primary results receive preliminary certification

Westmoreland County’s Elections Board on Wednesday voted to pre-certify results of the 2021 primary.

That vote opens a five-day window to challenge in court the results in which Republicans and Democrats were nominated to run for county row office jobs as well as magisterial district judge positions, seats on municipal government bodies and school boards.

County elections officials also gave a preliminary certification to the results in the special election to fill the state House seat in the 59th District left vacant by the death this year of Republican Mike Reese.

Republican Leslie Rossi received more than 61% of the vote to fill the remaining year and a half of Reese’s term.

A final certification vote is scheduled Monday.

Once final next week, the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election will be set.

Election Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said more than 35,000 write-in votes were registered during the primary. Candidates who received enough write-in votes to meet thresholds to qualify to win nominations will be listed with results posted to the county’s website.

Officials said late last week those write-in totals would be published by Monday. As of late Wednesday afternoon, the write-in vote totals were not yet posted to the website.

“We’re waiting for IT to post it today,” Sebastiani said.

Sebastiani said a full list of every write-in vote cast last month is available for viewing in person at the courthouse.