Brewster takes narrow lead

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Incumbent Democrat state Sen. Jim Brewster took a razor-thin lead over Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli on the ninth day after the election.

The race for the 45th Senate District remains undecided as the Allegheny County Elections Division has yet to finish its work.

For the first eight days after the election, Ziccarelli, of Lower Burrell, held a narrow lead over the senator from McKeesport.

On Thursday, Brewster picked up an additional 1,244 votes in Allegheny County and Ziccarelli added 1,093 to her tally. That put Brewster ahead by just 30 votes.

As of 10 p.m. Thursday, Brewster’s total vote count between Westmoreland and Allegheny counties stood at 65,811 and Ziccarelli had 65,781 votes.    

Today Allegheny County will count the mail-in and absentee ballots that were postmarked on or before election day and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, but those votes will not be released or posted due to a court order.

The decision by the Board of Elections to count mail-in and absentee ballots missing only a date has been appealed. The division will not do anything further with these ballots at this time. 

A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for Tuesday.

The 45th District stretches from the Alle-Kiski Valley to the Mon Valley and includes communities in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.