EASTON, Pa. — Northampton County on Tuesday quickly certified results from its recent primary election, with no recounts and no vocal debate, in contrast to last November.
All members of the county Election Commission at a meeting Tuesday signed off on the official election results.
Only two members of the six-person audience made public comments, asking about the procedure for a tie and any connections to the Pennsylvania Election Integrity Committee.
Final statistics for the election showed 221,429 total registered voters, with 49,473 of those casting votes, for a 28% turnout, according to officials present.
Of those, 58% were in-person votes, with the rest mail-in ballots aside from a small number of provisional.
"I mean, we'll have larger turnout, but we expect just to be as smooth."County Elections Registrar Chris Commini
County Elections Registrar Chris Commini said the primaries went very well and smoothly.
He said that in the upcoming general election, officials don't anticipate concern like that in last November's election.
"I mean, we'll have larger turnout, but we expect just to be as smooth," Commini said.
Officials said a referendum question for district attorney term limits likely will appear on the 2025 municipal election in November.
A risk-limiting audit will be completed at 9 a.m. Thursday in the election office, and casting of lots will take place at noon Friday to break ties in races for Republican committee members.
Both will be in county council chambers.
Full results for the recent primary are available on Northampton County's website.
Last year's concern not replicated
Northampton County's election process had been under scrutiny since a programming error in the county's ExpressVote XL voting machines created confusion and concerns in November during its municipal election.
As a result of the incorrect programming, retention questions for two state Superior Court judges were mislabeled — but officials said all votes were recorded properly within the machines.
Both judges who were subject to the error were retained by overwhelming margins throughout the state and officials said even if Northampton County strongly voted against them, the outcome would not have been altered.
More than 100 people gathered to oversee the election certification, with the county approving, despite dozens of residents calling for them to not stand by the results in a four-hour meeting.
Officials at the time said the Northampton County Elections Commission had no choice but to certify the results as a result of no candidates raising questions or concerns about the outcome.
'Pleased with the entire process'
On April's primary election day, officials in Northampton County celebrated a lack of issues, but were cautious in looking forward to November's general election.
“Our elections workers — our folks in the Elections Division, judges, poll workers, our volunteers — they are all entitled to take a victory lap today. But my message is November is a completely different animal.”Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure
County Executive Lamont McClure said in April that, “Our elections workers — our folks in the Elections Division, judges, poll workers, our volunteers — they are all entitled to take a victory lap today.
“But my message is November is a completely different animal.”
Officials did say the time and scale would be very different come November. While just under 50,000 Northampton County residents voted in April, nearly 170,000 in the last presidential election in 2020.
But at least for now, commission members were relieved at the lack of issue in processing the primaries.
"It was nice not to have to sit for three hours," commission member Margie DeRenziis said, noting it was "absolutely understandable" that those complaints took place.
"I can say that every single step that [the election] really was well coordinated, was handled according to law. And so I was really pleased with the entire process."
