Write-in candidates, provisional ballots could still sway elections
While unofficial election night results from the Tuesday, May 20, primary are in, the Butler County Bureau of Elections is working to count write-in votes and provisional ballots that could affect a number of the races.
One-by-one, the Butler Conuty Computation Board read through the write-in votes and tallied the primary results on Thursday afternoon, noting how the results would impact the November ballot.
In the county’s 96 voting precincts, there were 12,486 total write-in votes for candidates not already named on the ballot. These could still skew results in a handful of races or add names to the November ballot, according to elections bureau director Chantell McCurdy.
The results from Thursday and Friday’s counting will factor into the official results, which will be finalized May 23. At that time, McCurdy said the computation board will meet to finalize the count and decide if the 63 provisional ballots cast in the county will be counted.
McCurdy said the provisional ballots were mostly from people who either don’t normally vote in primaries and were unaware of their correct polling place or from others who ordered a mail ballot but did not bring it to surrender at the polls.
As for the write-in votes, if there’s no name on a ballot, a candidate must receive at least 250 write-in votes for county-level races, such as in the case for coroner, controller, clerk of courts and common pleas judge contests.
In the case of the coroner race, Korynne Young secured the Republican nomination with 7,007 votes compared to John Hanovick’s 6,537 and Braden Fox’s 4,758 votes, according to unofficial election night results, but on Thursday, the computation board waded through the write-in votes to determine she also secured the Democratic nod.
According to Thursday’s findings, Young received the highest amount of the total 1,062 write-in votes cast. Chantell confirmed she won the party’s nomination Thursday, but could not immediately provide specific numbers from the race.
A similar situation unfolded in the race for county controller. Ben Holland secured the Republican nomination on election night. According to unofficial results, Holland received 16,468 votes on the Republican ballot.
On the Democratic ticket, his name didn’t appear, however, voters still supported him by writing in his name. Unofficial results show there were 351 write-ins in total. McCurdy confirmed he received more than the necessary 250 votes to make the November ballot, but couldn’t speak to the specifics immediately.
In other races, fewer votes are required to make the cut and be named on the November ballot. In the case of city races, 100 votes are needed for write-ins to be considered, and in the case of municipal and school board races, the number is lower yet at just 10.
McCurdy also said a large number of write-ins were recorded in the Slippery Rock mayoral race with 153 combined write-ins for Republicans and Democrats compared to Mayor JonDavid Longo’s 175 Republican votes.
“We had a lot of turnout for write-ins in Slippery Rock borough,” McCurdy said.
McCurdy said the most write-in votes the bureau has ever received was around 19,000.
The election bureau also counted 34 blank ballots. McCurdy said some voters submit blank ballots as a form of protest, but still sign in to vote at the poll book.
Once counts are finalized, the computation board will send results on Tuesday to the Pennsylvania Department of State. Candidates then have five days to file objections to the election results before they are certified. The department will issue a mandatory recount by May 28 if vote totals between candidates are within 2%. The county would then begin a recount by June 4.
The winners of the general election in November will begin their four-year terms at the start of 2026.
Eagle staff writers Zach Zimmerman and Matthew Glover and Eagle assignment editor Tracy Leturgey contributed to this report.
