Westmoreland Republican row officers secure Democratic nominations through write-in votes

Westmoreland County Treasurer Jared Squires and Controller Jeffrey Balzer were out to lunch in late April when they decided to put in motion a plan to ensure they wouldn’t have any competition for the jobs they’ve held for the last 11 years.

“We realized no one was running against us. We thought we’d have competition but then no one stepped up, so we thought ‘Why not?’ ” Balzer said about the Republican incumbents’ impromptu plan to conduct write-in campaigns to secure Democratic nominations in the spring primary.

According to unofficial results released Wednesday by the county Election Bureau, their plan appears to have been a success.

Squires, who was unopposed in the Republican primary, secured 359 Democratic write-in votes last week, which is about 100 more than what was required qualify for the nomination.

Randy Biller, a Democrat from Mt. Pleasant who was the county’s elected clerk of courts from 1986 to 1990, also ran a write-in campaign for treasurer and received 214 votes, according to unofficial results.

Squires was on the ballot in the GOP primary and received more than 26,000 votes.

Balzer received 375 write-in votes to secure the Democratic nomination. He also was unopposed on the Republican ballot, where he secured more than 25,700 votes.

“We worked some polls and sent out about 1,500 mailers to areas where people are registered Democrats, but vote Republican,” Squires said. “We thought we would give it a try.”

The results, if certified by the county elections board, means Squires and Balzer will appear on the fall ballot as both Republicans and Democrats.

Two other Republican incumbents who ran unopposed this spring, Recorder of Deeds Frank Schiefer and Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton, did not receive enough write-in votes to qualify on the Democratic ballot with no other opposition in the general election.

First-term incumbent Sheriff James Albert will face Democrat Tommy John Hamacher in November. Albert was elected four years ago as a Democrat, but changed his party registration to Republican after a year on the job. Hamacher was the lone Democrat to appear on the ballot his spring to challenge the GOP officeholders.

In all, Westmoreland County received more than 18,000 write-in votes across 195 races this spring, said Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey.

Election officials late Tuesday finished tallying those votes and will spend the next several days calculating how they will impact municipal and school board races heading into November.

“Our goal is to have everything released to the public before the pre-certification (next week),” McCloskey said.

The elections board is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. on May 30 to give preliminary approval to the primary results, including candidates who won party nominations via write-in votes.