JEFFERSON CO., Pa. (EYT) – Voter turnout in the 2023 municipal primary election in Jefferson County is on a slight decline from the previous election.
Unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary show 7,677 ballots were cast from the county’s 24,397 registered voters. That’s a voter turnout rate of 31.47%.
According to the county’s site, voter turnout in the 2021 primary was 33.27%, with 9,286 out of 27,911 registered voters choosing to cast their ballots.
Between the two municipal primaries, the county lost 3,514 registered voters from the rolls.
“I thought our voter turnout was very low,” said Jefferson County Elections Director Karen Lupone. “But there were a couple of contested races like Punxsutawney and Brookville School Boards.”
According to Lupone, the Punxsutawney School Board seats were “at large” for the first time in her memory. Previously, seats were district-assigned.
“There were quite a few people running for just a few seats,” she said. “Now that they’re not district-driven and are all at large, it opened it up for more people to run.”
Lupone stated that poll workers reported to her that election day was slow going. But that doesn’t mean Lupone and her staff will have an easy time getting the election certified.
“There were many, many, many, many write-ins,” she said. “It will take at least a week to get through all the write-ins and make sure they’re real people. There aren’t a lot of people named Donald Duck in this area.”
It may take several weeks for official results from the county, according to Lupone.
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