County discrepancies make Barrett the winner, edging Fegley out of borough council
Published: November 5, 2009
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share thisSUNBURY - A discrepancy on the county Web site led to Democratic challenger Edward Fegley being declared a winner over incumbent Robert Barrett in the Mount Carmel Borough Council election Tuesday night.
According to the Director of the Northumberland County Board of Elections, Scott Dunn, incumbent Barrett is the winner of the borough seat over newcomer Fegley despite a problem between two tallies on the county Web site.
Both tallies on the county Web site were correct, he said.
However, in one location, Barrett was declared the loser with 715 votes, edged out by Fegley, with 723 votes. Newcomers Robert Shirmer and Clem Plisiewicz, with 715 and 894 votes respectfully, and incumbent borough President Anthony Matulewicz III, with 908 votes, were also declared winners.
For some reason, additional numbers listed in the one tally weren't included in the final count, Dunn said.
In the correct tally, Barrett was awarded the fourth council seat when 135 missing votes were added to the total, edging out Fegley 768 to 723.
"Our IT (information technology) guys are looking into it," he said.
At press time, no new information was available.
There was also a 135-vote difference in Matulewicz and Shirmer's final totals as well, placing the borough president at 1,043 votes and Shirmer at 850 votes. The numbers for Fegley and Plisiewicz did not change.
Barrett not only had a Democratic nomination, but a Republican one as well, earned through write-in votes in the primary. Matulewicz and Shirmer had both Democratic and Republican nominations. Fegley ran on the Democratic ticket, Plisiewicz on the Republican.
With the results, current council members John "Jack" Williams Jr. and Carl Froutz III will give up their seats to Plisiewicz and Shirmer, since both Williams and Froutz lost in the primary election.
While there were discrepancies in the numbers, no other race except Mount Carmel Borough Council had any significant change in results.
In Mount Carmel Township, incumbent supervisor Reynold Scicchitano was reported having 404 votes Wednesday. The accurate number is 461. No other numbers in the township race were different.
The following are the correct numbers for each inaccurate vote tally:
Mount Carmel Area School Board
- Dr. Ray Kraynak, 1972
- Charles Mannello, 1774
- Nicholas P. Goretski, 1668
- Donna James, 1630
Southern Columbia Area School Board
- Timothy W. Vought, 512
- Michael Yeager, 472
- Richard Steele, 463
Shamokin Area School District
- Edward Griffiths, 2262
- LaRue Beck, 1885
- Tracey Witmer, 2066
- Brian Persing, 1975
Line Mountain School Board
- Dennis W. Erdman, 432
- Lamont Masser, 414
- Lawrence I. Neidig, 350
- Bryan Buddock, 333
- Jeffrey S. Blasius, 278
Final tallies may be subject to change when official results of the election are released this week.Web error led to 135 missing votes in tally; Matulewicz, Shirmer, Plisiewicz also winners, newcomer Fegley out
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