Nearly 43% of all registered Indiana County voters cast ballots either through the mail or in person yesterday for the 2021 general election, which focused on many local government and school board races.
Indiana County’s newest judge on the Court of Common Pleas is assistant District Attorney Gina Force, who led over former DA Pat Dougherty all night long. The final tally was 13,174 votes for Force and 7,516 votes for Dougherty. Force said that she was grateful for all the support she received.
Dougherty said that he was grateful for the support he received over the last year for his campaign.
One of the closest races was the race for Indiana Borough Mayor between William Simmons and current acting mayor Joseph Trimarchi. When the vote count ended last night, only 11 votes separated Simmons from Trimarchi, with Simmons receiving 954 votes and Trimarchi getting 943. We reached out to both candidates, and while we did not hear back from Trimarchi yet, Simmons said he did not want to comment until the results were made official.
Other local races of interest included Indiana Borough Council, with Joshua Krasta winning the Ward 1 election, and Tamara Collazzo winning 183 to 178 over Sara Stewart in the 2nd Ward election. Stewart moved out of the borough in September, so she would not have been able to take office if she was elected.
In the third ward, Shavonne Arthurs and Jesse Collier were leading most of the night, but incumbents Donald Lancaster and Gerald Smith received enough votes from absentee ballots to give them the two seats on borough council. For the fourth ward, Betsy Sarneso and Luke DeBuyser won the two seats available.
In the Center Township Supervisors race, Democrat Dave “Butch” Smyers was ousted by Republican challenger Paul Colgan 823-503. Meanwhile in White Township, incumbents Gail McCauley and Sandy Gillette won their respective seats on the board of supervisors with vote totals of 2517 for McCauley and 2458 for Gillette. Judy Holiday had 1760 votes, while Carolyn Princes had 1332 votes.
Results are unofficial until the votes are certified.
Comments