1,600 Provisional Ballot Count In Bucks County May Impact 142nd Race

BUCKS COUNTY, PA —The fate of 1,600 provisional ballots is in the hands of the Bucks County Board of Elections, which will decide Thursday morning whether those votes should be counted or rejected.

The Board of Elections —who are the Bucks County Commissioners —will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday in Doylestown to review the remaining 1,600 of 3,100 provisional ballots.

The ballot reviews could be key in the 142nd Legislative race that could decide control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

The 142 Legislative District race has been a back-and-forth battle between Republican Joseph Hogan and Democrat Mark Moffa. Results were updated Wednesday.

A Moffa victory would give the Democrats majority control of the House at 102 members.

The Bucks County Board of Election updated results Wednesday, which cut Hogan's 114-vote lead in half from Monday's unofficial tally.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Hogan had 15,448 votes —or 49.99 percent —while Moffa had garnered 15,394 votes —or 49.81 percent —in unofficial results, the Bucks County Board of Elections reported.

The 142nd Legislative District consists of Penndel, Middletown Township, Langhorne, Langhorne Manor, Lower Southampton Township and parts of Northampton Township.

Final election results must be certified by Nov. 28.

The board met for nearly two hours Tuesday to review ballots that were set aside and provisional ballots, moving through numerous categories and issues to decide whether a vote should be counted or rejected.

Of the 1,500 provisional ballots reviewed by Board of Elections Director Tom Freitag, most were recommended to be counted. The board —consisting of Commissioners Robert Harvie Jr., Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Gene DiGirolamo —mainly agreed.

About 200 provisional ballots out of the 1,500 reviewed were rejected by the board.

Among those that will be counted were:

• 63 absentee ballots
• 584 mail-in ballots
• 567 poll book ballots
• 52 partial ballots

Provisional ballots that were rejected by the board were for identification not being supplied, "naked" ballots not having a secrecy envelope, not or no longer registered and voters being registered elsewhere instead of Bucks County.