Contested primary races draw low, but ‘higher than expected’ voter turnout
The Butler County Bureau of Elections reported a higher voter turnout than expected in Tuesday’s municipal primary election after preliminary reports favored a low turnout.
The election bureau reported a voter turnout of about 21%, or 29,766 ballots cast from 141,753 registered voters, according to unofficial election results reported in Butler County Bureau of Elections summary reports on Tuesday, May 20.
Election bureau director Chantell McCurdy typically expects 15-20% turnout in municipal primary elections, she said.
“(Turnout was) a little higher than expected, which is always very nice,” McCurdy said.
A total of 19,218 out of 82,463 registered Republicans voted in the election, and 10,516 out of 38,793 registered Democrats voted, according to the unofficial results.
McCurdy said the Butler County Common Pleas Court judge and coroner races on the Republican ballot appeared to drive turnout with close results. Candidates Matthew McCune and John Scialabba both secured nominations with more than 11,000 votes each on the Republican ballot and more than 6,000 on the Democratic ballot. In the race where voters were to choose two candidates to proceed, 30,447 votes were cast by county Republicans, and 14,353 were cast by county Democrats.
In the coroner race, the three candidates were within 2,250 votes of each other on the Republican ticket. Deputy coroner Korynne Young won the party’s nomination with 7,007 votes. Chief deputy coroner John Hanovick had 6,537 votes, and Braden Fox had 4,758 votes, according to the unofficial results.
Additionally, 1,062 Democratic voters wrote-in candidate names for the coroner race.
“I’m very excited for those candidates that they were able to push that amount of turnout,” McCurdy said.
McCurdy said the Republican races for Butler Area School Board and Karns City Area School Board were also heavily contested. Six candidates ran for four seats on the Butler Area School Board, and five of them received more than 2,000 votes on the Republican ticket. Two on the Democratic ballot received upwards of 2,000 votes.
Moving ahead on the Republican ticket are Nina Teff with 2,565 votes, John Conrad with 2,553 votes, Gary Shingleton with 2,453 votes and Alvin Vavro with 2,365 votes, according to unofficial results. Shingleton, Vavro and newcomer Eric Reffert moved ahead on the Democratic ballot with 2,377, 2,490 and 1,186 votes respectively.
In the Karns City Area School District, Cari Harmon received 781 votes, followed by Robert Bray with 755 votes, William Weibel with 707 votes and Zach Scherer with 555 votes, according to unofficial election results in Butler, Armstrong and Clarion counties.
At this time, it appears Donald Scherer would not move ahead, only receiving 493 votes, according to unofficial results, but McCurdy said within Butler County there are still 422 write-in ballots to count, so the race is yet to be determined.
Additionally, the unofficial results also show Clinton Township residents voted in favor of Saxon Golf Course to be able to sell liquor in the dry township in a 524-158 vote.
