BELLEFONTE — Five candidates will battle for four open seats on the Bellefonte Area School Board in November. And there will be four to choose from on both the Democrat and Republican tickets.

All six candidates — Jeffrey Steiner, Jordan Emely, Rodney Musser, Jon Guizar, Jack Bechdel II and Andrea Royer — cross filed during the 2021 Primary Election.

Guizar currently serves as board president, with Steiner and Musser attempting to retain their seats.

According to unofficial totals released by Centre County, Guizar, Royer and Steiner will appear on both the Democratic and Republican tickets in November. Guizar received 2,522 Republican votes and 940 Democratic; Royer gathered 2,827 Republican votes and 1,277 Democratic; and Steiner received 2,837 Republican votes and 1,017 Democratic.

Bechdel will be listed on the Republican ticket, having earned 2,751 votes, but falling short with only 869 Democratic votes.

Like Bechdel, Musser will only run on the Democratic ticket in November after receiving 903 votes and only 691 in the Republican race.

Jordan Emely is the only candidate out of six not advancing to the General Election. Emely received 901 Democratic votes and 465 Republican votes, according to results.

Bechdel, Guizar, Royer and Steiner are running on the Win4Bellefonte campaign which is a bipartisan community organization with the goal to support candidates that “encourage excellence, pride and tradition for the Bellefonte Area School District,” according to its website, www.win4bellefonte.com.

Musser, a current board member, spearheaded the campaign to remove Native American imagery in the district as well as the Red Raider nickname.

Beyond the hotly contested school board race, four constitutional amendment questions had Republicans, Democrats and non-partisan voters heading to the polls.

According to the numbers, Centre County residents voted “No” on amendment one which would allow the General Assembly to terminate or extend a disaster emergency, bypassing the governor of Pennsylvania’s control. 13,742 county residents voted against the proposed amendment, with 12,855 voting in favor.

The second proposed amendment, which would set a 21 day expiration date for emergency declaration, just barely received enough “no” votes. 13,383 residents voted against the proposed amendment with 13,131 voting in favor.

A whopping 19,368 residents voted in favor of the third proposed amendment. This proposed change would prohibit “denial or abridgment of equality of rights because of race or ethnicity” according to the ballot. 7,143 residents voted against the proposed amendment.

Nearly the same number of residents voted in favor of the final proposed amendment which would make municipal fire and emergency medical services companies eligible for loans. 19,639 voted in favor of the proposed change, with 6,575 voting against.

In the race for Jury Commissioner, Laura Shadle beat opponent Shelley L. Thompson for the Democratic ticket in the November. Shadle received 8,518 votes compared to Thompson’s 1,712, according to results. Shadle will run against Republican Hope P. Miller during the General Election.

Republican Barbara Dann will the lone candidate for Bellefonte Borough Council’s Ward 2 seat. Dann received 204 votes compared to opponent Randall Brachbill. Dann will run unopposed in November.

Voter count was low for this year’s primary with only 26.09 percent of registered voters coming out to the polls one Tuesday.

According to statistics on www.centrecountyvotes.com, a total of 27,411 voters cast ballots during the primary. Centre County has 105,067 registered voters.

Among those that cast their ballots were 11,971 Democrats, 13,529 Republicans and 1,911 Nonpartisan votered.

A total 8,752 mail-in and absentee ballots were received and being counted on Wednesday. A livestream of the counting process was also available on CNetCentreCounty’s YouTube page.

According to the county’s board of elections, an official count would be completed by 8 p.m. Wednesday.