39th District still too close to call

By CHRISTINE HAINES

chaines@yourmvi.com

It looks like it’s going to take the official count to determine the winner of the primary race for the Republican nomination for the 39th Legislative District.

With unofficial results reported in Washington and Allegheny counties as well as on the state website, the race appears to be going in favor of challenger Tom Kirsch by 111 votes. He holds a 3,208 to 3,097 advantage over incumbent Mike Puskaric, but those figures don’t include the mail-in ballots, and military ballots aren’t due until Tuesday.

Puskaric said his campaign watchers have him in the lead.

“The last thing I had heard was we were up by 174 or 176 votes,” Puskaric said. “At this point we just have to wait for the ballots to be certified.”

Both Puskaric and Kirsch said they understand that all the votes in Washington County have been unofficially counted, with Puskaric getting the lion’s share of support there. Kirsch has the lead in Allegheny County, but according to the election bureau, there are still numerous mail-in ballots to be counted.

Gov. Tom Wolf issued an extension for mail-in ballots in Allegheny County that includes all ballots postmarked by June 2 and received no later than June 9.

“Today’s mail included 459 ballots. Of those, 83 were postmarked on or before June 2. The remaining 376 were postmarked after that date. That brings the total of ballots that meet the requirements in the governor’s order to 6,778,” an Allegheny County elections update Friday stated.

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