State House Special Election Votes Are In, It Just May Not Be Over Yet
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The city commissioners finished counting the votes, from Tuesday's special election for state representative from the 197th district in North Philadelphia. But the results already face several challenges.
The election was a calamity from the beginning as the incumbent resigned after being convicted of a felony. Then democratic candidate to replace her got kicked off the ballot for not living in the district, and the Green Party candidate Cheri Honkala failed to file in time.
That left republican Lucinda Little the only name on the ballot in a district that is just 5 percent Republican.
Honkala and Democrat Emilio Vazquez ran write-in campaigns.
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The count showed Little with 114 votes, Honkala with 282, and Vazquez with 1960, but both Honkala and Republican party leaders are challenging that and spokesman Cameron Kline says the District Attorney's task force is investigating.
"There were lots of questions about the placement and use of the write-in stamps," said Kline. There were some reports of electioneering inside the polling place, there were concerns about voter assistance so those and other things we're going to look into."
