Bucks County lawyer Kathryn Boockvar was confirmed as the winner of the Democratic Commonwealth Court primary on Wednesday following an automatic recount. Boockvar beat Pittsburgh attorney Barbara Behrend Ernsberger by a margin of 0.3 percent, getting 311,732 votes to Ernsberger’s 309,680. Boockvar will now face Republican and fellow Bucks County attorney Anne Covey in the general election this fall.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Carol Aichele ordered the recount last month pursuant to Act 97 of 2004, which mandates that the votes be re-tallied whenever the margin of victory is less than 0.5 percent.
K. Kevin Murphy, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said last month that the estimated cost of a recount is nearly $500,000, based on $50 per ballot box multiplied by 9,248 districts. According to a department press release, the last statewide recount, in 2009, cost about $542,000.
Boockvar, who had been slightly ahead of Ernsberger in the primary when the polls closed May 17, said several volunteers across the state kept her updated on the progress of the recount, reporting many counties’ totals as soon as they came in.
“We actually were keeping a running tally,” she said. “The good news is it was always looking very favorable.”
Boockvar, a statewide election lawyer for the last three years with the Advancement Project, said she’ll now turn her attention to the general election and spend the time between now and November traveling the state and educating Pennsylvanians on why the Commonwealth Court is “particularly important right now.”
Full Article: After Recount, Boockvar Wins Commonwealth Court Primary.