Election result update shows Schmitt, Aigner retain margins in judge race

Mail-in votes add to lead for both judge candidates

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Blair County's updated primary election results posted Wednesday showed state Rep. Lou Schmitt of Altoona and Magisterial District Judge Paula Aigner of Hollidaysburg retained their winning margins to be on the November ballot to fill two vacant county judicial seats, starting in January.

Results posted Tuesday night -- when additional mail-in votes were yet to be counted -- showed Schmitt winning the Republican ticket with 7,917 votes and Aigner in second place with 5,545 votes. In that posting, Aigner was only 54 votes ahead of candidate John Sisto.

As of early Wednesday afternoon when the county posted updated results that included additional votes from mailed ballots, Aigner had 204 more votes than Sisto to secure second place on the Republican ticket with 5,966. Those same results showed Sisto's vote count at 5,762 votes. Schmitt's first-place achievement, meanwhile, increased to 8,433 votes.

On the Democratic ticket, results posted Tuesday night showed Aigner winning top honors with 2,675 votes, with results updated Wednesday increasing her total to 3,175 votes.

Schmitt, who placed second on the Democratic ballot on Tuesday night with 1,809 votes -- 32 ahead of Sisto -- retained second place by 34 votes as reflected in the updated totals posted Wednesday. Those results showed Schmitt with 2,096 votes and Sisto with 2,062 votes.

Updated results also showed candidate Mike Routch with 5,302 votes on the Republican ticket, an increase over the 4,975 votes posted Tuesday night. Updated results for the Democratic ticket showed Routch with 878 votes, an increase from the 757 votes posted Tuesday.

The county board of elections is scheduled to convene Friday for a review of provisional ballots and write-in votes. A notice on its website indicates that results reflective of those reviews are to be posted Friday afternoon.

Additional election results are available at www.blairco.org.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.