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Centre County board pre‑certifies unofficial municipal primary returns, schedules 2% audit and final certification
Summary
The Centre County Board of Elections read and pre‑certified unofficial returns for the May 20 municipal primary, reported turnout and candidate totals, and scheduled a 2% hand audit for May 28 and final certification for June 3.
The Centre County Board of Elections on Wednesday read and pre‑certified the unofficial returns for the May 20 municipal primary and set a 2% statistical audit of in‑person election‑day ballots for 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 28, and a meeting to certify final results at 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 3.
During the meeting, elections staff read unofficial vote totals for several statewide and county judicial races and reported party totals and turnout. Staff reported total turnout of 22.63 percent and an unofficial total of 18,886 ballots cast: 10,215 Democratic ballots, 8,671 Republican ballots and 0 nonpartisan ballots. The board moved and seconded a motion to pre‑certify the unofficial results to the Pennsylvania Department of State and approved the motion.
Elections staff read candidate subtotals as part of the unofficial returns. For judge of the Superior Court on the Democratic ballot, Brandon Newman had 4,598 election‑day votes and 4,648 mail‑in votes for the totals reflected in the meeting’s tabulation; Maria Batista had 4,172 election‑day votes and 1,134 mail‑in votes for a total of 5,311 as reported. On the Republican side, Anne Marie Wheatcraft was reported with combined totals of 2,594 votes. For judge of the Commonwealth Court, the Democratic candidate Stella Tsai was reported with 9,279 total votes; Republican totals reported included Matt Walford with 4,892 and Josh Prince with 2,962, among other race subtotals read into the record.
Staff described routine tabulation steps following the reading of unofficial returns: scanning results into the election management system, printing a new results summary, and signing forms to forward to the Department of State as the unofficial returns. The board also confirmed there were two outstanding mail‑in or absentee ballots and zero provisional ballots that might still be counted, and that write‑ins and name‑variation collation procedures would follow normal post‑election steps if required.
The board announced the 2% hand count will be held in the county Emergency Operations Center and invited the public to observe that process. Members said the pre‑certification step transmits unofficial results to the Department of State; official certification will occur at the scheduled June 3 meeting.
