City election results to be certified

March 11, 2009|By DAN DEARTH

HAGERSTOWN -- The results of the City of Hagerstown's primary election will be certified today after election workers finish counting about 100 absentee ballots, said Dorothy Kaetzel, director of the Washington County Board of Elections.

Kaetzel said election workers will split into two teams at about 10 a.m. and count the ballots by hand. The results should be certified this afternoon, she said.

Fifty-three of the 61 Democratic absentee ballots that were issued have been returned, as have 48 of the 55 Republican absentee ballots, city election official Eve McGrory said Tuesday.

Kaetzel said the count won't change the result in the Republican mayoral race because incumbent Robert E. Bruchey II defeated his nearest GOP challenger, Ann Holtzman, by a 121-vote margin.

Kaetzel said the results likely will stay the same in the Democratic City Council primary, but the order among the top five vote-getters might change. It is possible that R. Noel Brady, who gathered 505 votes during the primary, might surpass incumbent Martin E. Brubaker's 510 votes. David A. Lidz also could gain ground by improving upon his 490 votes, she said.

According to unofficial election results, Bruchey and William M. Breichner, Lewis C. Metzner, Brubaker, Brady and Lidz -- the top five vote-getters in the Democratic council primary -- will advance to the May 19 general election.

Bruchey will face Democrat David S. Gysberts.

The Republican council candidates are Patrick N. Crist, Forrest W. Easton, Jeremy L. Manford and Don Mohar. Unaffiliated council candidate Ashley C. Haywood also is on the general election ballot.

The Republican council candidates did not have to participate in the primary because fewer than five candidates filed to run.

Haywood automatically advanced to the general election as an unaffiliated candidate.

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