The manual recount of the votes from a single precinct of the 2023 Schuylkill County Commissioners election is over.
After all the votes were counted again, this time by hand, Commissioners Chairman Boots Hetherington gained one vote. Mary Jo Moss, the write-in candidate who requested this recount on behalf of 3 petitioners, lost a vote.
All other votes from the West Brunswick Township-North precinct remained exactly the same.
| Candidate | Election Night | Recount |
|---|---|---|
| Gary Hess (D) | 279 | 279 |
| Larry Padora (R) | 250 | 250 |
| Boots Hetherington (R) | 245 | 246 |
| Mary Jo Moss (Write-in) | 185 | 184 |
| Rita Anczarski-Baldino (D) | 146 | 146 |
| Gregory Woll (L) | 34 | 34 |
Moss lost a vote because the Recount Board didn’t give her credit for a vote written in for “Mary Jo Ross” that apparently was counted when the tally was originally taken on Election Night.
Moss ran an aggressive write-in campaign that garnered more than 4,200 votes. That was well short of the number needed to get elected and knew a recount of one precinct wasn’t going to change the results of the election.
However, she told The Canary her desire was to ensure that write-in votes were correctly counted by election officials.
After the results of the recount on Monday nearly identically matched the numbers posted on Election Night, Moss told The Canary, “I am pleased with the handling of the recount of the ballots. The county was accommodating and efficient, allowing us to record the details necessary to analyze the write-in process and verify the results.”
She also thanked her supporters for their votes and backing throughout the process.
“I am grateful for the overwhelming support from the community and appreciate the decisiveness and effort it took for so many voters to write in my name to cast their vote,” Moss added.
2023 Election Recount at Schuylkill County Courthouse
The recount was held Monday morning in the visually appealing and obscenely warm Lawyers’ Room on the 4th floor of Schuylkill County Courthouse.
It was ordered by Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Jacqueline Russell after Moss requested it after 3 votes in the West Brunswick Township-North precinct petitioned for a recount.
Three people served as members of the Recount Board: Tim Pellish, Anthony Odorizzi, and Deborah Hall. Each candidate involved in the race had an opportunity to attend or send a proxy to witness the recount process.
In addition to Moss, Commissioner Gary Hess and Libertarian candidate Gregory Woll witnessed the recount. Schuylkill County Republican Committee Chairman Howie Merrick also witnessed the process.
Schuylkill County Election Bureau Director Al Gricoski informed everyone how the process would play out. Pellish pulled ballots from the ballot original ballot bag from the West Brunswick Township-North precinct and read the votes for Commissioner from each ballot. Odorizzi and Hall tallied the votes on paper and confirmed their counts periodically.
The entire process took about 2 hours to complete.
Gricoski said afterward that it was the first manual recount of an entire precinct he’s overseen in his 3 years in charge at the Election Bureau.
He was pleased with the outcome because it showed what he believed from the beginning, that the counts tallied on Election Night were accurate.
“It’s all good on our end, so we’re happy,” he said.
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Tootsie
January 10, 2024 at 8:30 pm
Glad to see that Ms Moss looked into the ballot box. What is there to hide? What is the Republican party scared of or trying to hide? We haven’t heard the last of all this, no doubt.