Penn Hills primary write-in results revealed
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There will be some challengers on the Republican ticket in the Penn Hills general election in November.
John Petrucci, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor on the Democratic side in May, earned 375 write-in votes during the primary election, according to results from the Allegheny County Elections Division.
The current councilman said he would accept the nomination, making him “a Democrat running on the Republican ticket.”
“I just want to thank the voters for their support in me and hopefully I get the support in the fall as well,” he said, adding it will be a tight race.
Pauline Calabrese, 56, earned 53% of the votes in Penn Hills for the Democratic nomination during the May Primary to be the municipality’s next mayor. Petrucci garnered 47% that night. He lost the Democratic Party nomination by 257 votes.
Jim Getsy and Shawn Kerestus each received the highest amount of write-in votes in the pool of seven candidates for two open seats.
Getsy already won the nomination on the Democratic ticket in May. He earned 138 write-ins and said he will accept the nomination.
“A lot of people switch parties temporarily to vote. I think that’s kinda neat that people mobilized like that,” he said.
Kerestus earned 16.8% of the votes during the primary, losing the nomination to Getsy and Frank Pecora. He was not immediately available to comment.
Allegheny County spokeswoman Amie Downs said all the candidates will receive a letter in the coming week asking them to accept or deny the nomination. She said candidates have 21 days to accept or deny once they receive the letter.