Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Chesco officials certify Biden win
The Chester County Board of Elections on Monday officially certified the results of the 2020 election, giving former Vice President Joe Biden a historic victory in his successful — though still disputed — quest for the White House.
The board, made up of the three county commissioners — Democrat Marian Moskowitz, the chairwoman, Democrat Josh Maxwell, and Republican Michelle Kichline — voted unanimously to accept the results of the vote from Nov. 3 and beyond as presented to them by the county’s Office of Voter Services.
The resolution to approve the votes was presented by Bill Turner, the interim director of the county Office of Voter Services. It was accepted without comment from the board or the public, with the exception of a thank you to the Voters Services staff from the commissioners.
The last hurdle to the certification action was cleared Nov. 18 when officials from the county’s two parties agreed to withdraw all challenges to provisional ballots that were cast on Election Day. There were about 900 of those out of the 3,500 provisional ballots cast. Had the parties persisted, the count could have dragged on longer as parties fought over the board’s decisions in court.
“Both parties are satisfi ed ( with the count),” Moskowitz said Monday in an interview. “That is a good trick these days. Given what we are having to deal with ( nationally), our county came through with fl ying colors. We did everything we could do to make sure every vote counted.”
The certifi ed results from the count of ballots received by the county before and on Nov. 3 show Biden, the presumptive president- elect, with 182,372 votes, or 57 percent of the total, to President Donald J. Trump’s 128,505 votes, or 40 percent. That winning margin of 54,867 seemed more than enough to help propel Biden — whose ties to Chester County include his residence in neighboring Greenville, Del., and his wife’s status as a master’s degree graduate of West Chester University — to his win in Pennsylvania.
But the county also certifi ed additional votes that came from ballots the county received after the polls closed Nov. 3 and before the deadline set by the Department of State for ballots postmarked by Election Day. Those would give Biden an extra 340 votes and Trump 257 votes, but the county is segregating those ballots from the full total until a legal challenge concerning them is settled by the U. S. Supreme Court.
Regardless, the 182,000plus votes for Biden is the most ever cast for a presidential candidate of either party in the county’s history and by far the most ever cast for a Democrat.
Figures show that the previous record was held by Democrat Hillary Clinton when she ran against Trump in 2016 and received 141,682 votes. Former President Barack Obama, who won the county’s vote in 2008, had received 137,883 votes that year and 124,311 votes in 2012.
Biden’s margin of victory of 57 percent was, however, not the largest percentage in county records. That goes to President Ronald Reagan, who took 60 percent of the vote in his landslide 1980 victory. But it did top the 54 percent of the vote Lyndon Johnson received when he ran against Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Obama’s similar margin in 2008.
The process of the election is not over for Moskowitz, who earlier this year was chosen to be one of 20 people who will deliver the state’s votes to the Electoral College. She will travel to Harrisburg on Dec. 14 to take part in that part of history, along with her colleague from Montgomery County, commissioner’s Chairwoman Dr. Val Arkoosh, and three people from Delaware County — labor leader Ryan Boyer, former state Sen. Connie Williams, and county Board of Elections member Gerald Lawrence.
“It is such an honor to be chosen,” Moskowitz said. “We are a winner- take- all state, so all 20 of us go to the winner, and when you look at Pennsylvania, there is no question that Joe Biden has won.”
Moskowitz, who is completing her fi rst year in offi ce as the fi rst Democratic chairwoman of the county commissioners, expressed some dismay at the continued wrangling over the results of the presidential election playing out in Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin.
Trump and his Republican allies are pressing forward with several cases aimed at blocking or delaying election results in key battleground states won by Biden. Republicans are complaining that, among other things, their observers weren’t allowed to properly review the processing of ballots.
“It is not fair to the people to drag this process on,” she said Monday. “It doesn’t make sense to me. It is not the way we do things in the United States.”
The Board of Election’s certifi cation also gave victories to candidates for several federal and state offi ces.
U. S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan was declared the winner over Republican challenger John Emmons to once again represent the county’s 6th Congressional District. Houlahan, a Democrat, has been discussed as a possible candidate for U. S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat, which becomes available in 2022 when he retires, as has former Republican congressman Ryan Costello of West Goshen and Kichline.
For state representatives, the winners include a host of incumbents. They are Republicans John Lawrence in the 13th Legislative District, Tim Hennessey in the 26th District, and Democrats Dan Williams in the 74th District, Danielle FrielOtten in the 155th, Melissa Shusterman in the 157th, Christina Sappey in the 158th District, and Kristine Howard in the 167th District.
Also certifi ed were the victories of Carolyn Comitta in the 19th state Senate District, an open seat, and John Kane in the 9th state Senate District, who defeated Republican incumbent Thomas Killion. Democratic West Chester Mayor Dianna Herrin’s race to replace Comitta in the 156th Legislative District was also certifi ed, as well as Republican Craig William’s victory over Democrat Anton Andrew in the 160th Legislative District to fi ll the seat left vacant by retiring Republican state Rep. Steve Barrar.
County offi cials got the go- ahead to certify election results over the weekend when a federal judge in Williamsport turned down the request for an injunction by Trump’s campaign, spoiling the incumbent’s hopes of somehow overturning the results of the presidential contest.
In his ruling, U. S. District Judge Matthew Brann said the Trump campaign presented “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations unsupported by evidence.”
“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” the opinion said. “Our people, laws, and institutions demand more.”
The decision led to Sen. Pat Toomey acknowledging Biden would be the next president of the United States, and Sen. Kamala Harris the next vice president.
“With today’s decision by Judge Matthew Brann, a longtime conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist, to dismiss the Trump campaign’s lawsuit, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania,” Toomey said in the statement.
“I congratulate Presidentelect Biden and Vice President- elect Kamala Harris on their victory,” he said. “They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country. Unsurprisingly, I have significant policy disagreements with the President- elect. However, as I have done throughout my career, I will seek to work across the aisle with him and his administration, especially on those areas where we may agree, such as continuing our efforts to combat COVID- 19, breaking down barriers to expanding trade, supporting the men and women of our armed forces, and keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill.”
He concluded by saying Trump should accept the outcome of the election “and facilitate the presidential transition process.”