Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
The Bucks County Democratic Committee (BCDC) will not be requesting a recount in the county’s closest commissioners race in history.
In a statement released late Friday afternoon, BCDC Chairman John Cordisco announced his group had “decided against challenging the results of the commissioner election.” He added the choice not to request a recount for the race between Falls Township Democrat Brian Galloway, also principal at Mary Devine Elementary School in Bristol Township, and incumbent Republican Charley Martin was “not made lightly and was arrived at after serious deliberation with our candidates and party officials.”
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Martin and Galloway’s tallies were close as votes were counted on election night and into the next morning. In the end, Martin bested Galloway by roughly 700 votes.
If Galloway would have won, the majority of the Bucks County Commissioners would be Democrats.
The BCDC also announced Friday that they will not challenge the Clerk of Courts race. According to election data, Democrat Chris Gallagher lost to incumbent Republican Mary Smithson by roughly 500 votes.
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Rumors of a recount have swirled since the November 3 election ended. On Facebook, Falls Township-based Democrat State Rep. John Galloway wrote of the race that involved his brother, “there may be a recount to see if he made history.”
Recounts for county seats are rare and often a costly process.
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“We are extremely proud of the positive, forward-thinking campaign that our Commissioner candidates ran and can say with certainty that it’s only a matter of if, not when, we will turn Bucks blue. This decision also applies to the results of the Clerk of Courts race, which was even closer at 493 votes. Our committee still holds open the possibility of challenging the results of other down-ballot races,” Cordisco said.
The chairman noted that Democratic candidates secured several new municipal seats in the recent election and incumbents were able to keep their majorities in Bristol Borough and Falls Township.
