The official count of ballots cast for the Shamokin Area School Board resulted in a tie in the Republican primary for the fourth, and last, nomination.
On election night, the unofficial count put Matthew Reed Losiewicz in fourth place, 12 votes ahead of Diane Serafin. However, Alisha Herb, director of the Northumberland County Bureau of Elections, reported the official count showed Losiewicz and Serafin tied with 415 votes.
The contest will be settled by a tie-breaker to be held at 4 p.m. Friday, June 7, in the public meeting room at the county administration building in Sunbury. Herb said the tie-breaker process will involve each candidate randomly drawing one of 16 numbered pills; the candidate drawing the highest-numbered pill will be declared the winner. This is identical to the procedure used to determine candidates' order of position on primary election ballots.
The other three school board nominees on the Republican ticket are Edward M. Griffiths, Rosalie Smoogen and Richard A. Kashnoski.
Herb said the Democratic results for Shamokin Area School Board are unchanged. Nominees are Griffiths, Kashnoski, Smoogen and Losiewicz.
If Losiewicz emerges as the Republican nominee, the school board race will be virtually decided, since four candidates will be seeking election with double nominations. If Serafin is the winner, there will be five candidates vying for four spots.
A tie-breaker will also be used to determine the Republican nominee for mayor of Kulpmont. Nicholas Goretski and Bernard Novakoski each received 14 write-in votes, and, according to Herb, neither received any additional votes through absentee ballots. Novakoski defeated Goretski for the Democratic nomination.