Zschunke Lead Grows For Horsham Council: Unofficial Election Results

Updated: 12:50 p.m. Thursday

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —With some ballots still being counted, longtime Horsham Township Councilman Mark McCouch has lost his lead for re-election, according to unofficial results.

The council president had led Democratic challenger Ellen Zschunke following last Tuesday's general election by 22 votes, garnering 3,977 votes to 3,955 for Zschunke with 100 percent of Montgomery County's 426 precincts reporting.

But with the Montgomery Board of Elections still tabulating military and overseas ballots that can come in a week after Election Day, the vote count changed, unofficial tallies show.

Zschunke, 42, now leads McCouch by six votes with another tally update expected Wednesday afternoon. She has 4,003 votes to 3,994 for McCouch as of Thursday afternoon.

"We hope to have final results in the next day or two, when all mail-in, absentee, provisional, and military ballots have been counted," Horsham Democratic Committee Co-Chairman Paul B. Gallagher told Patch Wednesday.

McCouch, 63, a Republican, has served on the council for 20 years.

Democratic newcomer Samatha Slaff topped the four candidates with 4,095 votes in winning a council seat while Republican challenger Stephen VanHorn finished fourth with 3,845 votes.

Slaff and Zschunke received more than 1,500 mail-in votes, triple the amount that McCouch and VanHorn had garnered during the general election.