NORTHUMBERLAND, Pa. — Voting is a way we can help make changes and decisions in our government. Historically, presidential elections bring people to the polls, but local elections like this one do not.
"Realistically, what Joe Biden does today is not going to have a massive impact on my life or my children's lives, but what my county supervisors do very well might," said Chris Ellis, a Bucknell University professor of political science.
Ellis says local municipal elections are where our votes can really make a difference. These are also typically the elections with the lowest voter turnout.
"If we're talking about a presidential election in Pennsylvania, 7 million people voted. The odds that your vote is going to make a difference is zero or basically zero. But in some of those local elections, we're looking at really tiny margins," Ellis said.
One example of this is Milton. Democrat Tom Aber received 595 votes, and Republican Joe Moralez got 594 votes.
"Every vote counts, decided literally by one vote," said Nathan Savidge, director of elections in Northumberland County.
On Tuesday, Savidge and his staff counted the Milton mayor ballots by hand. There will be a provisional ballot determination.
"People that voted in their precincts where maybe they weren't registered in the one precinct, but they hopped over and issued a provisional for manual review. What that means is we determined that three votes counted, and there could potentially be a tie for Milton borough mayor," Savidge said.
Savidge says voter turnout in Northumberland County was 29%.
"This could actually come down to just the toss of a coin to see who the next mayor of Milton is," Savidge said.
Another close call in Northumberland County was in the race for Sunbury City Council. Democrat Victoria Rosancrans lost by just 11 votes.
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