The Bucks County Board of Elections has certified the returns from the Nov. 6 general election, with the final results showing a victory for incumbent Sen. Tommy Tomlinson over Democrat Tina Davis in the 6th Senatorial District
By Tom Waring
The Times
The Bucks County Board of Elections has certified the returns from the Nov. 6 general election, with the final results showing a 74-vote margin of victory for incumbent Republican state Sen. Tommy Tomlinson over Democrat Tina Davis in the hotly contested 6th Senatorial District.
Tomlinson won by a count of 54,382 to 54,308.
The certification ends a process by county elections officials, which was closely watched by advocates and attorneys from both political parties, to check and re-check the numbers from a midterm election that had an uncommonly large voter turnout of 64.8 percent of the county’s 454,301 registered voters.
The post-election work of certifying the results began the day after the balloting.
More than two dozen elections workers, closely watched by attorneys, reporters and other observers, worked long hours investigating the validity of provisional ballots, canvassing and computing the returns of all county voting districts, tallying the remaining absentee ballots from overseas civilian and military voters, and calculating write-in votes.
The resulting final count was submitted to members of the Board of Elections, and signed by County Commissioners Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia, chairwoman of the elections board, and Robert G. Loughery, making the certification official.
Tomlinson wrote on Facebook, “After a long drawn out process, I am proud to have earned your support and to continue serving as Senator of the 6th District. I am honored and humbled by the support and dedication of my campaign team, volunteers, and supporters. This election proves that every vote counts. I would like to thank the Bucks County Board of Elections; the team there worked tirelessly to ensure the results were correct.”
Davis, who was re-elected to her state House seat, is trying to have a court order the counting of 200 or so absentee ballots that arrived after the deadline.
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In other certified returns, Davis topped Republican Anthony Sposato by a vote of 13,347 to 8,137 to hold on to her House seat.
Republican Wendi Thomas ousted Democratic state Rep. Helen Tai, 17,608 to 17,036.
Republican Rep. Frank Farry won another term, beating Democrat Lauren Lareau, 18,177 to 14,241.
Republican Rep. Gene DiGirolamo defeated Democrat Jimmy Lamb, 12,870 to 9,897.
Democratic Rep. John Galloway ran unopposed.
In the Bucks County portion of the 1st Congressional District, Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick took 152,461 votes to Democrat Scott Wallace’s 141,577 votes. Wallace took the smaller Montgomery County portion of the district by 2,580 votes, giving Fitzpatrick an overall victory of 8,304 votes.
Bensalem Township residents approved, by a vote of 9,199 to 7,003, a measure to raise property taxes to fund local volunteer fire companies’ operational and maintenance costs.
Here are the Bucks County votes for U.S. Senate: Democrat Bob Casey Jr., 165408; Republican Lou Barletta, 124,133; Libertarian Dale Kerns, 2,873; and the Green Party’s Neal Gale, 1,903.
Here are the county votes for governor: Democrat Tom Wolf, 172,302; Republican Scott Wagner, 117,912; Libertarian Ken Krawchuk, 2,602; and the Green Party’s Paul Glover, 1,513. ••
