Observation - 2013 General Election

Letter To The Editor

-submitted by Bill Matthews


Re: Observation - 2013 General Election

Turnout for this election was again low, 22.5%. However, this is not the observation I find most interesting. 

About one third of the voters making time to vote, did not vote for any school board candidate. Further, more than one than one third of the total votes available to residents and taxpayers actually voting, were not cast for any school board candidate; remarkable to me.

Who's on first?

Almost ten days ago, Mt. Lebanon voters cast their ballots for up to four school board directors. As I had noted before, the results are as follows:

Republican ballot:
School Director MT LEBANON
          Vote for not more than  4
              (WITH 38 OF 38 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           Mary D. Birks .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       998   19.72          
           Durwood Hill  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       641   12.67
           Michael Jon Riemer  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       963   19.03          
           Dan Remely .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,391   27.48
           William J. Moorhead .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,049   20.73          
           WRITE-IN.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        19     .38

Democratic ballot:
School Director MT LEBANON
          Vote for not more than  4
              (WITH 38 OF 38 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           Michael Jon Riemer  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,623   21.09          
           Dan Remely .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,064   13.82
           Mary D. Birks .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,980   25.72
           Durwood Hill  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,227   15.94
           William J. Moorhead .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,772   23.02          
           WRITE-IN.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        31     .40

So who won? As I understand it, and please correct me if I am wrong, the ballot should look something like this:

Birks, Moorhead, and Riemer will appear on both lines. Remely will be on the Republican line, and Hill will be on the Democratic line. (Thanks goes to a Lebo Citizens reader for explaining this to me.  Not sure if he wants to be identified.)

But what about Independents? According to the Post Gazette, you have to be an Independent at least 30 days before the Primary to run as one in the November General Election. (Again, thanks goes to the same person.)

Unless we have an Independent that meets the criteria, it looks like we are stuck with the five candidates listed above. What bothers me is that Remely received more votes that Durwood Hill did. Mt. Lebanon, are you kidding?

I would love to hear who the fifty write-in names were.  Can we come up with a successful write-in campaign?  Are there Independents who will step up to the plate? If not, we're in for more of the same. In the words of the infamous Josephine Posti, "Ugh!"