Local Election Runs Smoothly

Washington County Director of Elections Melanie Ostrander was pleased with how Tuesday night’s election turned out. Ostrander says the night was largely free of any distractions, save one. In the Borough of Houston, a judge of elections had to be removed because he was deemed to be violating the rights of a poll watcher. The incident was calmly resolved. Overall Ostrander said that approximately 120,000 of the 148,000 registered voters in Washington County took part in the election. That number included mail in ballots, absentee ballots and precinct voting. That was an 80% participation rate according to Ostrander. Less than 200 mail in ballots that arrived on Election Day are left to count. On Friday, the Board of Elections will hold a canvassing meeting to make determinations on ballots concerning over-votes and stained ballots that could not be read by scanners.