If elected as both lieutenant governor and state representative this fall, Scott Conklin would quickly give up his seat in the state House, a Conklin spokesman said Wednesday.

Campaign aide Tor Michaels clarified remarks that Conklin made Monday, when the Rush Township Democrat said he is willing to hold both state offices simultaneously.

Michaels said Conklin would retain his current House seat, representing the 77th District, only until a special election could be called to identify a replacement. Conklin would wait until a special election could coincide with a regular election, Michaels said.

"That way, it wouldn't cost the taxpayers any money," he said.

Conklin "would never intend to hold both seats," Michaels said. "He would obviously hold (the House seat) until there's someone to fill it."

A two-term state representative, Conklin ran unopposed this spring for the Democratic nomination to retain the 77th District House seat. In the November general election, he will face Republican challenger Joyce Haas, of Patton Township. She defeated Ron Reese in the GOP primary on Tuesday.

Separately, in the lieutenant-governor race, Conklin faced two other candidates -- Jonathan Saidel and Doris Smith-Ribner -- for the Democratic nomination on Tuesday. Results in that statewide contest are still unclear.

By 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, Conklin had 35.4 percent of the counted votes statewide; Saidel, 34.9 percent; and Smith-Ribner, 29.8 percent. In raw numbers, that adds up to 316,299 votes for Conklin, 311,930 for Saidel and 266,503 for Smith-Ribner.

But those tallies do not include results from 28 of the state's 9,236 precincts, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. Department spokeswoman Leslie Amoros said the unaccounted-for precincts are in Philadelphia and Delaware counties.

"We are, obviously, reaching out to them," Amoros said.

Counties are scheduled to certify their ballot counts on Friday. The certification procedure includes a count of absentee and military ballots.

If the final ballot tally for any of the three lieutenant-governor candidates is within half a percentage point of another, the state will mandate a recount under Pennsylvania election rules. Election officials should know by May 27 whether a recount is necessary, Amoros said.

"It's not unusual to not have (the precinct results) all in on election night," Amoros said, though she did not speculate about what's causing the hold-up in the Philadelphia area.

Saidel is a former Philadelphia city controller. There, Saidel has been "running ahead of Conklin in some precincts by as much as 200 votes," said Saidel spokesman Marty Marks, citing some preliminary data.

Still, "the race is too close to make a final determination," Marks said. He said he does not know what's causing the vote-count delay.

But "we want to make sure that everyone's vote is counted and tallied correctly," he said.

Michaels said the Conklin campaign hopes to have some clarity about the election results today.

"We have been up all night pushing the refresh button on the state department website," where statewide results are posted, Michaels said. "I'm sure there's a lot of other people who have been doing that. ...

"Clearly, we are humbled and overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for Scott Conklin," he said.

The winner in the Democratic contest will face Republican nominee Jim Cawley in the November general election.