Drama swirls around undecided races
There’s suspense, possible legal conflict with 2 local Senate primary contests
Suspense and the potential for legal conflict swirled about two tight and undecided Senate primary election races in the Lehigh Valley over the weekend after a federal court ruling threw open the possibility of counting undated mail-in ballots.
As of Sunday afternoon, based on unofficial results, Jarrett Coleman had a 17-vote lead over incumbent Sen. Pat Browne in the 16th Senate District Republican primary.
Meanwhile, also based on unofficial results, Nick Miller had a 101-vote lead over Tara Zrinski in the 14th Senate District Democratic primary.
But the margins in both races were far from final, even though five days had passed since Election Day.
Not only could the totals for all four candidates be changed by potential addition of undated mail-in ballots, but it appeared likely candidate totals in both races still had to be revised to include some provisional ballots. Those are processed and counted after Election Day.
It also appeared likely a relatively small number of absentee ballots sent in by overseas military personnel still had to be added.
The three-judge 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision late Friday in a Lehigh County elections case unrelated to the 14th and the 16th races. The court found that the state election law’s requirement for a date next to the voter’s signature on a mail-in ballot was “immaterial.”
Zrinski, for one, believed the federal court ruling could have a major impact on her contest. She said the federal court ruling “definitely” should be applied to the state-level Senate races.
“I am not giving up hope that these mail-in ballots might change the tide in our campaign,” she said.
An attorney for Coleman, meanwhile, was adamant that the undated mail-ins should not be counted.
In a Sunday email to elections directors in Lehigh and Bucks counties — the two that include parts of the 16th District — attorney Lawrence Otter wrote that the federal court ruling did not apply
to the state Senate race and “we object to adding those invalid ballots to the count.”
Asked in a telephone interview what his strategy would be if the undated ballots were counted, he said: “See you in court.”
During Tuesday’s primary election, county elections officials had set aside undated mail-in ballots — as well as those that were unsigned or had other issues — and they were not counted.
It was unclear on Sunday exactly how many of them there were in each of the two Senate races.
14th District contest
Lehigh County Board of Elections Chief Clerk Tim Benyo said late Friday there were 54 undated mail-in ballots countywide. It was not clear how many were cast in the 14th District, which includes parts of Lehigh and Northampton counties, and how many in the 16th, which includes parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties.
It also was not clear how many undated mail-ins had been put aside in Northampton County.
Lamont McClure, county executive, said on Sunday he did not know the figure.
Zrinski, though, said Sunday, “They are numerous and it will be impactful.”
Unofficial results on the Department of State website Sunday put the two-county total for Miller at 8,819 and for Zrinski at 8,718.
However, Zrinski — a Northampton County councilmember — fared far better in that county than Miller, and the reverse was true in Lehigh, where Miller is a member of the Allentown School Board.
Reached Sunday, Miller maintained that he was “cautiously optimistic” about his lead over Zrinski.
“I am going to respect the democratic process and let it play itself out, and be patient
until it does,” Miller said.
McClure said Northampton County Election Commission solicitor Richard Santee was reviewing the federal court ruling.
The 14th has no incumbent and is a new district in the Lehigh Valley, created in the recent legislative map-redrawing process. The existing 14th District, which includes Carbon County and part of Luzerne, will become obsolete after November.
Miller owns a real estate business. Zrinski is an adjunct professor and solar energy consultant.
16th District update
In the 16th, with parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties, at least some of the 54 undated mail-in ballots in Lehigh might come into play, depending on events.
In Bucks, spokesman Jim O’Malley last week said there were 714 mail-in
ballots set aside because of issues that included lack of a signature, date or a secrecy envelope. He did not provide a breakdown.
But O’Malley said determinations on them would be made starting Tuesday by the Bucks County Board of Elections.
On Sunday, the state website showed a two-county total for Coleman of 17,019 and for Browne of 17,002.
Attempts to reach Browne were not successful.
Browne, a multi-decade lawmaker and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is viewed as one of the leading state budget negotiators in Harrisburg. Coleman, who was unknown in state-level politics only a few weeks ago, is an airline pilot who only recently was elected to the Parkland School Board.