A Wednesday afternoon release of newly tallied ballots in the 142nd Legislative District race kept Republican Joe Hogan ahead of Democrat Mark Moffa.
Hogan had 15,448 votes and Moffa had 15,394 by Wednesday afternoon. The two candidates were separated by 54 votes, which was an increase from the two votes that separated them just days ago.
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Hogan said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the race that has dragged on for more than week.
“This is the process that goes on and people are doing what they need to do. Mark Moffa and the Bucks County Democrats are making sure every vote is counted,” said attorney Kevin Greenberg, who is representing the county Democrats.
The Bucks County Board of Elections met Tuesday to discuss outstanding segregated and provisional ballots. The results of that meeting and tallies of overseas and military ballots led to Hogan pushing ahead in the results.
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The 142nd Legislative District race has been among the tightest in the state and had the potential determine whether Democrats or Republicans have control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Democrats declared victory Wednesday afternoon in the race in the 151st Legislative District in Montgomery County, which will give Democrats the majority by just one seat.
Democratic and Republican lawyers spoke of challenging some ballots in the 142nd Legislative District. On Thursday, the Bucks County Board of Elections will deal with 47 challenges to ballots in race.
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Among the segregated votes on Tuesday were 21 ballots from Crestview Center, a long-term care center in Middletown Township.
The Bucks County Board of Elections, which is made up of the commissioners, voted 2-1 along party lines to count the ballots that were delivered by a staff member on behalf of residents who voted.
Some conservatives have taken issue with the votes and claimed the situation was ballot harvesting and violated state law. The matter doesn’t appear to be a case of ballot harvesting by definition and highlights where state law could be more clear on rules for designated agents who deliver ballots on behalf of others.
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The Gateway Pundit, a conservative website known for factual follies and pushing untrue information, published an article Wednesday morning claiming the ballots from the Middletown Township facility and one in Upper Bucks County were “stolen,” which is not true.
County elections officials said they investigated the 21 ballots, which is why they were segregated and brought before the Bucks County Board of Elections. There was no wrongdoing or nefarious activity found.
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From LevittownNow.com‘s dispatch on Tuesday’s elections meeting where the segregated ballots were voted on:
The Pennsylvania Department of State issued guidance related to long-term care facilities in 2020 and said designated agents that handle delivery of ballots for those who can’t can only deliver one ballot per household. However, Fitzpatrick said, state election law doesn’t say that and the county’s attorneys believe it is proper to count those ballots as long as designated agent formers were filled out and there were not other problems.
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Fitzpatrick said there is no evidence of ballot harvesting or wrongdoing. By her assessment and that of election staff, the designated agents, who worked at the long-term care centers, said they were following the law and also understood household to mean their type of facility because the residents live there in a communal setting.
Harvie noted county officials investigating found the residents at both facilities live in a hospital-like setting and not in individual independent living apartments.
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Harvie said there is no information anything wrong happened and it appeared the spirit of the law was followed.
“These are people who need assistance and may not have family living in the area. To find somebody they trust, who is an employee, I have a hard time disenfranchising people who are in that situation,” Harvie said.
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