Centre County Certifies Election Results

Centre County’s Board of Elections unanimously approved certification of the the county’s 2020 general election results on Monday afternoon.

Monday marked the deadline for Pennsylvania counties to certify results and submit them to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, who will then make her own certification. A handful of counties are expected to be late with their certifications, which is not unusual and will have no effect on Pennsylvania’s final certification.

In the presidential election, Democrat and now President-elect Joe Biden won Centre County over President Donald Trump with 51.4% (40,055 votes) to Trump’s 46.7% (36,372 votes). Libertarian Jo Jorgensen garnered 1,066 votes.

Biden carried Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes.

A federal judge on Saturday threw out a lawsuit by the Trump campaign and two Pennsylvania voters against Boockvar and the boards of election of seven counties won by Biden — including Centre — in an attempt to block certification of Pennsylvania’s votes. The Trump campaign has filed a notice of appeal.

County Commissioner Michael Pipe, who is vice-chair of the Board of Elections, said he spoke to county solicitor Betsy Dupuis who  ‘indicated that there is nothing stopping us from doing the final certification at this point in terms of any court challenges or litigation, so we have the green light.’

No one requested to speak during public comment prior to the certification by the board of elections, which is comprised of Democratic Commissioners Pipe and Mark Higgins and Republican Commissioner Steve Dershem, who chairs the election board.

Out of 112,090 registered voters in Centre County, 78,094 cast ballots in the November election, a turnout of 69.67%. In Pennsylvania’s first general election with no-excuse-required mail voting, 32,906 mail and absentee ballots were cast in the county.

With the historic influx of mail ballots, more than 275 workers assisted in pre-canvassing in the processing room set up at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center. 

‘I want to reiterate one last time the fine work of a lot of people in making all the pieces of this puzzle fit together so effectively and it looks like we survived the 2020 general election,’ Dershem said. ‘Hopefully we learned some lessons and the next election cycle might be a bit easier.’

Following the statewide certification by Boockvar, Gov. Tom Wolf will notify Biden’s 20 Pennsylvania electors to report to the state Capitol on Dec. 14 to cast their votes in the Electoral College.