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Ballot counting held up

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Counting of the primary ballots came to a halt Tuesday night when three precincts were late in arriving. Altoona 13-1, Altoona 13-4 and Bellwood were yet to be received at the Blair County Highway Yard at 10:20 p.m., more than two hours after the polls had closed.

Those three trickled in, with Altoona 13-4 arriving about 10:25 p.m., followed by Bellwood. But it wasn’t until nearly 11:30 p.m. that Altoona 13-1 arrived, after a phone call from Director of Elections Sarah Seymour inquiring as to the whereabouts of the ballots.

Seymour said the problem appeared to be that a person unfamiliar with the process was bringing the ballots and the electronic device to the highway yard from the polling location.

It was only a matter of minutes after the delivery that Blair County announced the unofficial election results.

According to those results, John Fetterman was chosen by Democratic voters as the party’s Senate candidate. Fetterman received an estimated 3,573 votes to Conor Lamb’s 694, Malcolm Kenyatta’s 208 and Alex Khalil’s 150.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro ran unopposed, pulling in an estimated 4,459 votes. As for Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial candidate, Shapiro-backed Austin Davis won an estimated 2,780 votes, beating out Brian Sims and Ray Sosa, who had an estimated 1,176 votes and 487, respectively.

The projected Republican gubernatorial candidate is Douglas Mastriano, with an estimated 9,479 votes. Carrie Lewis Delrosso is projected to win the Republican lieutenant gubernatorial nomination with an estimated 7,693 votes.

The Republican candidate for Senate is contested, with the three frontrunners — Mehmet Oz, Dave McCormick and Kathy Barnette — coming within hundreds of estimated votes of one another. So far, Oz has an estimated 5,643 votes, McCormick 5,115 and Barnette 4,854.

There was an estimated total of 23,682 ballots cast, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats, 18,883 to 4,799 respectively. An estimated 25 blank ballots were also turned in.

According to Chief Clerk Nicole Hemminger, there are 3,263 outstanding absentee ballots left to count, with canvassing to take place today and Thursday. Of those outstanding ballots, 1,809 are Democrat and 1,454 are Republican.

Hemminger estimated less than 100 provisional ballots were issued, saying that many precincts reported having zero. Military ballots are expected to arrive by today, and a provisional ballot meeting will be held on Thursday.

Other than the late arrival by the three precincts, Seymour said no major issues occurred during the day’s elections, with many precincts arriving at the Blair County Elections and Voter Registration Office soon after the polls closed at 8 p.m.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.

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