Montgomery County Primary Election Results: Turnout, Major Races

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — Primary election results from around Montgomery County were finalized early Wednesday, as the last mail-in ballots and precincts were counted by officials.

Tuesday's elections, which focused chiefly on municipal level contests like school board and township council races, finalized the fields for the 2021 general election in November.

Turnout

Mail-in ballots still played a notable role Tuesday, even with the pandemic greatly abated and the vaccination rate rapidly rising. Some 56,753 Montgomery County voters cast their ballots by mail, as 11 drop-boxes were set up across the county to facilitate easy return of votes.

The ratio of in-person to mail-in was drastically different than last November, however. On Tuesday, 106,196 Montgomery County residents went to the polls in-person.

Overall, the county saw about a 27 percent turnout of voters in the election. This is, expectedly, significantly lower than the presidential year primary in 2020. It is a huge improvement over 2019, however, which saw just 21 percent turnout, and 2017, which saw just 15 percent.

Ballot questions

While the state appears to have voted convincingly to restrict the governor's powers in a public health emergency, Montgomery County, unsurprisingly, did not agree.

On question one — should the General Assembly be able to restrict the governor's powers — the county voted no by a margin of 93,741 to 61,765.

Question two, which proposed a related constitutional amendment that would limit the length of an emergency order issued by the governor, saw the county vote no 92,830 to 62,406.

The county has been a Democratic stronghold for years, and it would have been surprising if these Republican-backed initiatives enjoyed much support here. However, the final statewide results indicate clear evidence of some cross-party support for the measure.

County judges

Several judgeships were contested around the county Tuesday. Many candidates cross-filed in both party's primaries, though only one won both contested contested primaries - Gregory Scott, in district 38-2-09.

Magisterial District Judge 38-1-13 - Democratic

Jodi Lukens Griffis - 1,600

Frank Bernhardt - 723

Magisterial District Judge 38-1-15 - Democratic

Denise Ashe - 185

Aaron Holston - 96

Francis J. Lawrence - 92

Monica Matthews Reynolds - 84

Write-in - 11

Magisterial District Judge 38-1-28- Democratic

Edward Levine: 3,171

Patrick Hanrahan - 933

Magisterial District Judge 38-2-04 - Democratic

Karen Zucker - 4,507

Joseph Hirsch - 513

Andrea Kronfeld - 189

Magisterial District Judge 38-2-09- Democratic

Gregory Scott - 562

Todd Barnes - 310

Magisterial District Judge 38-1-13 - Republican

Frank Bernhardt - 1,328

Jodi Lukens Griffis - 223

Magisterial District Judge 38-1-15 - Republican

Francis J. Lawrence - 100

Monica Matthews Reynolds - 43

Magisterial District Judge 38-1-28- Republican

Patrick Hanrahan - 3,020

Edward Levine - 951

Magisterial District Judge 38-2-09- Republican

Gregory Scott - 99

Todd Barnes - 96

Key races

• North Penn school board
• Abington school board
• Norristown Area school board
• Lower Merion school board

These are just a sampling of the races decided Tuesday night. For full results in Montgomery County, see here.