Too close to call
Incumbent Pat Browne trailing Jarrett Coleman by 30 votes in Pennridge region state Senate race
More than 1,200 as-yet-uncounted provisional ballots — issued to voters who are not eligible for regular ballots — could wind up being major factors in a close state Senate primary race in the Pennridge area.
Relative newcomer Jarrett Coleman has a 30vote lead on veteran incumbent state Sen. Pat Browne in the Republican primary in the 16th District.
The presence of so many provisional ballots makes it possible and even likely no clear winner will be known before next week. Candidates, lawyers or advisers are following the provisional ballot-handling processes closely, and none expect to celebrate or concede before those processes are finished.
Unofficial results in the 16th Senate District Republican primary show Coleman with 17,002 votes and Browne with 16,972.
Provisional ballots are issued in a variety of situations. They include when a voter’s name is not in the poll book because the voter moved or went to the wrong polling place, or when a voter obtains a mail-in ballot, then decides to vote in person, but fails to bring the mail-in ballot to the polling place to be destroyed.
During Tuesday’s primary, polling places in Bucks turned in 640 provisional ballots, and Lehigh polling places turned in 393, officials said.
The 16th District includes parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties, including all of the Pennridge School District towns.
Elections officials are required to examine provisional ballots and, among other things, make sure people aren’t voting twice.
The state Election Code requires counties to decide within seven days of the election whether and how many of the provisional ballots will be counted.
In Bucks County, spokesman Jim O’Malley said Board of Elections staff have until a board meeting Tuesday to research each of the provisionals. Information will be presented to the board, which makes decisions on whether to count ballots.
Separately, Bucks has a set of 714 mail-in ballots that have been put aside or “segregated” for reasons that include lack of signature, lack of date or lack of a secrecy envelope. O’Malley said determinations on whether individual ballots within that group will be counted generally take less time than the research on individual provisional ballots.
“I would imagine, by Tuesday, we are going to know how many of those 714 are going to be counted,” O’Malley said.
Bucks also could receive up to 153 absentee ballots requested by overseas military and civilian personnel, he said.
The Bucks board has its own attorneys and staff and also relies on guidance from the Department of State, he said.
On Wednesday, the 32-year-old Coleman, a Parkland School Board member and newcomer to state-level politics, declared victory. Browne — a 58-yearold veteran politician and one of the most influential lawmakers in Harrisburg — indicated it was possible the 30-vote margin would be erased.