The results of the November 2022 General Election for state Representative District 107 are very confusing. The contest was between Mr. Ryan Mock and now State Rep. Joanne Stehr.
The election was interesting in that then-Rep. Kurt Masser declared very close to the primary that he was not going to run for reelection. Stehr won the Republican primary and Mr. Ronald Tanney by way of write-in votes won the Democratic primary. Late in the election cycle Mr. Tanney declared he wouldn’t run on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Mock was then appointed by the Democratic Committee and was put on the ballot.
I reviewed the certified election results for the applicable precincts for Northumberland and Schuylkill counties. Rep. Stehr’s total votes were 18,303 while Mr. Mock’s total was 6,032. It was a landslide win for Rep. Stehr winning with 75% of the vote; winning on a 3 to 1 margin.
However, when one looks at the mail-in ballots it is quite a different story. Both in Northumberland and Schuylkill counties Mr. Mock won in mail-in voting. In Northumberland County, Mr. Mock collected 1,309 versus Rep. Stehr 903 and in Schuylkill County, Mr. Mock 584 to Rep. Stehr 551. Though Rep. Stehr won the overall election by a wide margin she lost in the mail-in ballot category. Interesting.
In some precincts the percentage of mail-in ballots versus total for Mr. Mock was very high, up to 53%. Of Mr. Mock’s total votes about a third or 33% came for mail in votes while 8% of Rep. Stehr’s vote total came from mail-in ballots. In any analysis one has to be careful about reading too much into percentages. But on a mail-in vote basis, Mr. Mock clearly won 1,893 to 1,454 or Mr. Mock received 56% of the vote compared to Rep. Stehr’s 44%. Those mail-in results are very different from the overall election results.
The mail-in ballots don’t make sense.
Walt Lutz,
Kulpmont
