New Kensington cook wins Democratic primary to run for state House seat

Nearly 9,200 write-in votes were cast by Westmoreland County voters in last month’s Democratic and Republican primaries.

Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey said the county elections board is expected to issue a preliminary certification of results on Tuesday.

Those results will include a victory for one candidate who did not appear on last month’s ballot. Democrat Davon Magwood, a restaurant cook from New Kensington, was the lone write-in candidate who received enough votes to qualify for the fall ballot, officials said.

Magwood, 38, received 354 write-in votes and as a result won the Democratic primary to run for the state House 55th District seat that represents Murrysville and New Kensington. Magwood will face Republican incumbent Jill Cooper, who defeated challenger Jamie Lingg in last month’s GOP primary.

“I believe that during covid, the federal government gave Harrisburg money to help residents but Democrats and Republicans sat on their hands while people in my community suffered,” Magwood said, explaining why he is seeking the state House seat.

Magwood said he attempted to have his name appear on the ballot this spring but a clerical error rendered his nominating petitions invalid. State election code required he receive at least 300 write-in votes to qualify for the fall ballot.

The election bureau reported 661 write-in votes were cast in the Democratic primary for the state House 55th District seat.

The write-in votes cast countywide this spring were about half as many than were submitted last fall, according to officials.

More than 18,000 write-in votes were cast during the 2023 municipal elections, with a majority of those coming from in several races for local school boards. County election officials said about 12,000 write-in votes were cast during the 2022 elections.

Meanwhile, officials reported 2.3% of the nearly 23,000 mail-in ballots returned by Westmoreland voters during the spring primaries were not counted, including 280 that arrived at the courthouse after polls closed on at 8 p.m. on April 23.

McCloskey said 137 ballots were segregated and not counted because they were incorrectly dated or were undated.

Another 119 mail-in ballots were rejected for various reasons including some that contained no signatures from voters, were not returned in sealed secrecy envelopes or had improper markings on those envelopes.

Changes to mail-in ballots were made this spring that expanded the wording on outer envelopes with detailed instructions about where a signature was required and how it should be dated as part of an effort to reduce the number of rejected ballots.

“The state redesigned the ballots to make it simple, but the fact we had a higher number of insufficient dates still mystifies me,” McCloskey said.