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Julia Rater
BELLEFONTE -- All four candidates hoping to earn a seat on the Centre County Board of Commissioners were able to punch their ticket this Primary election.
Incumbent Steven Dershem and newcomer Marie Librizzi were on the Republican ballot and incumbents Mark Higgins and Amber Concepcion were listed for the Democratic ballot.
On the Republican ballot, incumbent Steven Dershem received 9,635 votes followed by newcomer Marie Librizzi with 6,366 votes, according to preliminary results provided by the Centre County Voters' office.
On the Democratic ballot, incumbent Mark Higgins received 10,514 votes. He was followed by Amber Concepcion, another incumbent, with 9,635 votes.
Though there were 252 write-in ballots total, both pairs of candidates have moved on to the November election.
Barring any write-in candidates, the pairs are expected to move onto the November election.
In other Centre County election news:
Two Centre County residents went head to head for the role of a judge in the Court of Commons Pleas for the 49th District.
Both candidates cross-filed in the election for this year's Primary, with those voting either Republican or Democrat allowed to choose just one candidate, Gopal Balachandran or Julia Rater.
Rater managed to punch both the Democratic and Republican ticket. She received 6,567 Democratic votes and 8,482 Republican votes. Balachandran received 6,041 votes on the Democratic ballot and 1,494 on the Republican ballot, according to preliminary results.
Beth Lechman, Director of Elections & Voter Registration, commended the hard work of the elections office staff, consisting of full time and temporary workers. She thanked all of the volunteers working in the polling locations and those that helped to count ballots at their Vote By Mail Center.
"They work hard hours to make sure voters are ensured their constitutional right to vote. Without their hard work and dedication, Election Day couldn't happen," said Lechman.
Turnout is typically low during non-presidential elections, and this year's primaries were no different. The turnout, according to Lechman, was in line with past elections; 24,590 ballots were cast, with 82,632 total registered voters.
According to the statistics listed on centrecountyvotes.gov, among those voters were 13,113 Democratic ballots cast and 11,477 Republican ballots cast; mail-in and absentee/mail-in ballots were received and counted on Tuesday night. A livestream of the counting process was also available on CNetCentreCounty's YouTube page.
According to Lechman, official election results will be confirmed at 3 p.m. on May 30.