Ballot counting wraps up early Wednesday for primary election

NORRISTOWN » Ballot counting for the 2022 primary election wrapped up early Wednesday morning in Montgomery County, hours after the polls closed on Election Day.

Montgomery County’s unofficial election summary report recorded 198,070 ballots cast. Voters chose contenders for the several positions at the federal and state levels including in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to advance to the Nov. 2 general election. Primary candidates for governor, lieutenant governor positions, as well as other seats in the Pennsylvania General Assembly were up for grabs.

With 505,661 registered voters in the state’s third most populous county, the figure represents a 39.17 percent voter turnout rate, according to the county’s unofficial election summary report.

That figure encompassed 135,199 in-person votes across 426 precincts, according to the Montgomery County Primary Election 2022 Unofficial Results website. Additionally, 62,871 mail-in and absentee ballots have been counted out of the 64,217 that were returned.

That leaves more than 1,300 unaccounted ballots. There are another 420 absentee and mail-in ballots “pending evaluation,” according to the county’s unofficial election results website. The remaining 926 ballots have been rejected, according to Montgomery County Communications Director Kelly Cofrancisco.

Cofrancisco noted several reasons for ballot rejections. They included ballots that had an “incomplete voter declaration,” “identifying marks on the secrecy envelope or ballot,” a “missing secrecy envelope,” or if the “ballot was received after 8 p.m. on Election Day.”

Vote counting operations are complete as of 1 a.m. on Wednesday, May 18, 2022,” read a statement on the county’s unofficial election results website. “The dashboard below will be updated with military and overseas ballots, provisional ballots, and ballots pending evaluation as they are processed and counted.”

Provisional ballots should be updated by Friday, while intake of military and overseas ballot data isn’t expected until after May 24, according to county election officials.

“We had a smooth, safe and fair election,” Montgomery County Board of Elections Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. said Wednesday. “The only disappointment was the turnout with so many important state and federal offices on the ballot.”

The results of Montgomery County’s 2022 primary election have not yet been certified.

For more Information and election results, visit the Montgomery County Office of Voter Services’ website at montcopa.org/ voterservices.