The three presumptive Democratic nominees for Scranton City Council each said Tuesday they also won the Republican nominations through write-in votes.
No official vote totals were completed, but the unofficial Democratic nominees - Councilman Patrick Rogan, Joe Wechsler and Bill Gaughan - said they were working off their own separate compilations of precinct-by-precinct GOP write-ins.
The Lackawanna County elections office will not have those votes tabulated until later this week, Director Marion Medalis said. Mr. Rogan, Mr. Wechsler and Mr. Gaughan won the Democratic nominations, according to unofficial results from the May 21 primary election.
All results are unofficial until an official count is complete. The counting and tabulation of write-in votes is part of the county's official count, which also confirms the vote totals of candidates listed on the ballot.
According to the candidates' own counts of write-in votes: Mr. Rogan was the top vote-getter for the Republican nomination, followed by Mr. Wechsler, Mr. Gaughan and Tim Perry. Mr. Perry, who was fourth by Mr. Gaughan's and Mr. Wechsler's numbers, said he was uncertain where he stood Tuesday afternoon. Efforts to reach the other Democratic candidates with Republican write-in votes, Joseph Matyjevich and Greg Evans, were unsuccessful.
Whether a write-in vote should count can be subject to interpretation. Some voters might misspell a candidate's name or use only a first or last name, making voter intent more difficult to determine.
Partly because of the interpretation involved, Mrs. Medalis declines to announce write-in vote totals and declare nominees until she first has a chance to determine whether a write-in vote should actually count as a vote for a specific candidate and can then tabulate totals. That is expected to happen later this week.
With 163 voting precincts and thousands of write-in votes countywide, counting write-in votes is painstaking and takes a substantial amount of time.
Each city council candidate sought Republican write-in votes because no Republicans were on the ballot. A similar situation that required counting Republican write-in votes exists in several Midvalley boroughs. In other communities with no Democratic candidates, Democratic write-ins must be checked.
Having both nominations solidifies a candidate's chance of winning the November election. Someone who did not win a Democratic nomination in the primary can still gain a chance to win election by getting the Republican nomination. Without either nomination, a candidate's path to election is far harder, though someone can always win election through write-in votes.
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.comLuzerne waiting
WILKES-BARRE - Luzerne County election workers finished tallying the write-in votes from the May 21 primary, but results won't be official until the election board meets next week. The counting started on Friday was on hold during Memorial Day weekend, and wrapped up Tuesday afternoon.
The Board of Elections will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the courthouse to certify the election results, including write-in tallies and recounts.