Westmoreland write-in votes push Republican row office candidates to victory on Democratic ticket

Democratic and Republican voters in Westmoreland County nominated the same row office candidates to represent their parties in the fall general election.

Republican challengers Katie Pecarchik and John Ackerman, as they did in the GOP primary, defeated current officeholders in the Democratic primaries for register of wills and coroner with write-in votes, according to unofficial results made public Wednesday by the county election bureau.

Incumbent District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli, Clerk of Courts Megan Loughner and Prothonotary Gina O’Barto — who were unopposed in the Republican primary — also won nominations through write-in campaigns in the Democratic races where no candidates appeared on the ballot.

The county election board is expected to issue the first of two certifications June 3, with the results slated to become official a week later.

Those write-in results essentially mean there will be no contested races for Westmoreland County row offices in November.

Pecarchik, a former Democrat who switched to Republican, received more than 1,377 Democratic write-in votes, which is about 1,100 more than incumbent Jon Wian. She essentially secured a victory for a two-year term to run the courthouse office where wills and estate documents are filed and adoptions and marriage licenses are processed.

Wian, who previously served as chief of staff to Westmoreland County Commissioner Sean Kertes, was appointed as register of wills in February by Gov. Josh Shapiro.

He is to serve through the end of the year, filling a vacancy left after last year’s resignation of three-term incumbent Republican Sherry Magretti Hamilton.

Hamilton last spring was found guilty of contempt of court for failing to adhere to judicial orders to correct management deficiencies in the office. Her resignation was part of a deal that allowed her to avoid a potential jail sentence.

Pecarchik, who worked for two decades in the register of wills office before she initially retired in 2024, was rehired by a court-appointed conservator to help oversee a new management team and in September became acting register of wills upon Hamilton’s resignation.

Pecarchik’s victory in the Republican primary was a surprise to GOP officials. Wian was endorsed by the county GOP committee, but her campaign focused on her experience versus Wian’s inexperience in the Register of Wills Office.

“I don’t want to say I feel vindicated, but I believe that, if it was meant to be, it was meant to be,” Pecarchik said on Wednesday.

She suggested she’s ready to step into the job when needed.

“Whoever is there, they should be full time. I am not calling on (Wian) to resign — that is up to him. I would be happy to step into the job, but I am not calling for him to resign,” Pecarchik said.

Wian was not at the courthouse Wednesday and did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Election Bureau Director Scott Ross said the county is continuing to review and tally the more than 29,000 write-in votes cast last week in the nearly 500 races on primary ballots, including municipal offices and school board seats.

“The hard part isn’t counting the votes, it’s trying to read them all. The county write-in (totals) are done, and we hope to have the municipal (totals) done by the end of the week,” Ross said.

County row office candidates were required to have at least 250 write-in votes to qualify for the fall ballot.

Ackerman served two decades as a deputy coroner before he retired in 2022, two months after Carson took office when he defeated longtime Democratic incumbent Ken Bacha.

Ackerman and Carson, former Democrats who are now registered Republicans, ran aggressive write-in campaigns in this spring’s Democratic primary. Ackerman received 1,826 write-in votes, nearly doubling Carson’s total, the election bureau said.