By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER

marcie@bradfordera.com

Unofficial results from the McKean County primary election are in — except for the write-ins.

Countywide voter turnout was just 18.68% in total. There were 4,074 ballots cast, 3,292 on election day and 782 by mail or absentee.

Winners in the primary election will be on the ballot for the November general election.

Both write-ins and a question on a potential error on the Smethport Borough Council ballot will be addressed later in the week.

Mary Hollebeke, director of elections for McKean County, said, ‘The Board of Elections will meet Friday to make the determination on the handling of the Smethport ballot issue and the canvassing of the write-in ballots for all precincts and we will make those results publically available as soon as possible thereafter. Thanks for your patience.’

For Bradford Area School District, the top Democratic ballot will see a newcomer, a former member and two incumbents. The top vote getter was newcomer Katie Caruso with 349, followed by former member Fred Proper with 334, and incumbents Helen Cummiskey Schuster with 297 and Frances Forbes with 268.

For the Republican ballot, one incumbent and two former board members, along with a political newcomer, gained the votes for the ballot in the November general election. The top vote getter was former member David Feely with 778, followed by former member Fred Proper with 643, incumbent Hiel Bartlett with 593 and newcomer Katie Caruso with 500.

A race for Mount Jewett Borough Council had nine candidates vying for the four spots on the Republican ballot. The top vote getters were Thomas W. Geer with 75, Annie Jo Wolf with 73, Mike Wennerstrom with 70 and Jane K. Bernecky with 50 votes.

For Bradford Township supervisor, the outcome of write-in votes has not been released yet, but 304 Republican writein votes were cast, while 74 Democratic write-in votes were cast.

A resolution in Liberty Township was approved with 118 yes notes to 72 no votes. The resolution was as follows: ‘Shall Liberty Township be permitted to raise the limit on the annual tax to support the ambulance up to one (1) mill?’

For Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Michele Alfieri Causer 2,738 votes for the Republican ballot. On the Democratic side, there were 56 write-ins, which is not enough for one candidate to secure a place on the ballot.

None of the write-in votes for the county row offices — sheriff, prothonotary, controller, treasurer — had made it to the threshold of 100 to be on the Democratic ballot in the fall general election.

When it comes to the races for mayor, write-in candidates would need at least 10 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Should more than one candidate have enough signatures, the spot would go to the one with the most votes.

For mayoral races, on the Republican ticket, in Eldred Borough, Andrew Dale Lathrop received 47 votes to appear on the general election ballot. Kane Mayor Brandy Schimp received 175 tallies for a spot on the ballot. Laura Fillhart received 107 votes in Port Allegany Borough to secure the ballot. Smethport Mayor Wayne Foltz earned 187 votes to appear on the general election ballot.

In Mount Jewett Borough, 35 Republican write-in votes were cast, and in Lewis Run Borough, 24 write-ins were cast in the mayoral races. It wasn’t immediately clear if one candidate received enough votes to secure a spot on the ballot in either place.

There were not enough write-in votes cast in the Democratic mayoral races in Eldred Borough, Lewis Run Borough, Mount Jewett Borough or Smethport Borough for a candidate to be on the Democratic ballot. There were 10 write-in votes cast in Port Allegany Borough, but they must be all for the same person to qualify for the ballot. That was unknown as of Wednesday.

In Kane Borough, there were 44 Democratic write-in votes cast, potentially enough for a candidate to appear on the ballot, depending on for whom the votes were cast.

For township supervisor, Annin Township had no candidates, while Keating Township had one candidate and three seats available. For the Republican ticket, Annin Township had 17 write-ins, while there were not enough on the Democratic side. For Keating Township, candidate David McClain had 184 votes, while not enough write-in votes were cast for anyone else to appear on either party’s ballot.

As for councilmen, there were 32 Democratic write-ins for a two-year term on Mount Jewett Borough Council and 33 Republican votes. For Kane, there were 81 Democratic and 131 Republican.

While the turnout was low statewide, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said the municipal primary election in Pennsylvania ran smoothly, with county elections boards reporting only minor, isolated issues.

‘As always, I’d like to thank the hundreds of county election officials and the approximately 45,000 poll workers who made democracy possible today,’ Schmidt said. ‘Because of them, Pennsylvanians were able to securely cast their vote at more than 9,000 precincts across our 67 counties.’

Registered Pennsylvania voters received about 800,000 mail ballots for this primary election. As of 7:30 p.m., counties were reporting about 70% of those ballots had been returned.

Final voter turnout numbers will be available in several days, after all eligible votes have been counted, but anecdotal reports indicate turnout was typical for municipal primary elections.