County discrepancies declare Barrett winner in MC borough
Published: November 4, 2009
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by justin strawser
staff writer
justin_s@newsitem.com
SUNBURY — Discrepancies between two county unofficial election tallies declared both Mount Carmel borough council candidates Robert Barrett and Edward Fegley as a winner and a loser.
According to the Director of the Northumberland County Board of Elections Scott Dunn, both locations on the county website were correct.
However, at one location, the names that were highlighted in yellow, the incumbent Barrett was declared the loser with 715 votes, being edged out by newcomer Edward Fegley, with 723 votes.
Newcomers Robert Shirmer and Clem Plisiewicz, with 715 and 894 votes respectfully, and incumbent and borough president Anthony Matulewicz III, with 908 votes, were also declared winners.
Additional numbers below the highlighted portion failed to be included in the tally for an unknown reason, said Dunn.
“Our IT (information technology) guys are looking into it,” he said.
At the second location, Barrett was awarded the fourth council seat when 135 votes were added to the total, edging out Fegley 768 to 723.
Coincidentally, there was also a 135-vote difference for Matulewicz and Shirmer’s final totals, 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 is a Democrat, and Plisiewicz a Republican. Fegley was only on the Democratic side.
With the results, current council members John “Jack” Williams Jr. and Carl Froutz III will give up their seats to the newcomers, since both re-ran and lost in the primary election.
At the moment, no other discrepancies between the two tallies appeared to have any significant impact.
