LOWER FREDERICK PA – Former Lower Frederick supervisor Noelle Halter was the top vote-getter among two Democrats running for two supervisors’ seats in the Tuesday (May 16, 2023) municipal primary election, and Republican Katie Lewis was the leader among that party’s four contenders for the same positions, the Montgomery County Voter Services department reported.
All vote counts remain unofficial until certified by the county.
Halter received 383 votes on 447 ballots cast, and current Board of Supervisors’ Chair Marla Hexter received 354 votes. Voter turn-out could be characterized as small, in that only 12.82 percent of the township’s registered Democrats were involved.
Within the Republicans, Lewis received 358 votes on 568 ballots cast, followed by candidates Rob Wisler, 304 votes; current board Vice Chair Dan Orfe, 231 votes; and Bob Burns, 158 votes. The party’s voter turn-out, at 16.29 percent of registered Republicans, by comparison was substantially higher than that of the Democrats.
The first- and -second place finishes in both parties’ supervisor races sets up a November battle between Republicans Lewis and Wisler, and Democrats Halter and Hexter. Both Orfe and Burns have the potential to promote write-in campaigns.
Auditor’s race
Incumbent township auditor Jennifer Bryan was unopposed by either Democrats or Republicans in her bid to retain that seat in November. She is one of three township auditors elected to “settle and adjust” township accounts, even though the annual audit is performed by certified public accountants. Bryan received 409 votes on 447 ballots cast.
Read an earlier story, published May 15 (Monday) by The Post, that previewed races for the township positions.
About the reported results
These election results are unofficial, and contingent so far on several factors explained by Voter Services:
- Wednesday’s (May 17) last reported counts on in-person voting received by the department ended at 12:45 a.m. They were subject to changes as more reports are received later.
- As of the Wednesday counts, the department said a total of 91,052 were cast from across all of its 426 precincts.
- The county’s count of absentee and mail-in ballots began Tuesday (May 16) at 7 a.m. As of early Wednesday 53,091 absentee and mail-in ballots had been received, and of those 52,383 were counted. Another 182 ballots were “pending evaluation,” it said.
- The county’s count of provisional ballots will not begin until Friday (May 19), it said. Provisional ballots are paper ballots issued by polling location staff members “when more time is needed to determine the voter’s eligibility to cast a ballot” according to the department. Its has not yet reported figures for the number of provisional ballots to be counted or evaluated.
- Ballots from those “living abroad” who are members of United States military forces or American citizens have until May 23 (Tuesday) to return their ballots. Unofficial vote counts will not be updated until after those ballots are included.
Ballot photo from Montgomery County Voter Services
