Hearing Held to Rule on Provisional Ballots in Truitt-Comitta Race for the Pennsylvania House

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Dan Truitt and Carolyn Comitta

A hearing was held Tuesday morning in an attempt to determine who ultimately won the race between Dan Truitt and Carolyn Comitta for state representative of the 156th Legislative District, writes Michael Rellahan for the Daily Local News.

The three Chester County commissioners who comprise the county’s Board of Elections listened to arguments about accepting or rejecting provisional ballots.

Unofficial election results initially placed the incumbent Truitt, a Republican, ahead of Comitta, a Democrat and the mayor of West Chester, by 78 votes.

Absentee ballots, though, pushed Comitta ahead by 18 votes. However, 66 provisional ballots were challenged and had yet to be factored into the final tally.

“We don’t know the contents of any of the ballots,” said Kara Rahn, Director of Voter Services.

The board ruled to accept two of the provisional ballots as valid, and deny 19 provisional ballots as invalid. “(Comitta’s attorney) withdrew the challenges to the remaining rejected provisional ballots, so they will not be counted,” Rellahan wrote.

The sides have until Monday to appeal the decision to the Court of Common Pleas.

At any rate, it appears that – once the ballots have been officially accepted or rejected and a winner is determined – a manual recount is very likely.

Click here to read more about the election from the Daily Local News.

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