The Adams County Office of Elections and Voter Registration has completed its final tallies of the 2023 elections. The now-official results are available online or in a publicly available booklet at the elections office.
Elections Office Director Angie Crouse said 55 provisional votes had been cast, of which 52 had been determined to be valid. Provisional votes occur when the registrar is required to determine the validity of the vote. One of the provisional votes was a partial count, a vote made by a person who was appropriately registered in the county but who voted at an incorrect precinct.
Crouse said three of the provisional votes were in Gettysburg Ward 1 where there was a close race between Democrat Kierstan Belle and Republican Peter Bayles.
Of those votes, two were for Bales and one was for Belle, giving Bales an official three-vote margin. Crouse said that if Belle requested a recount she would have to pay for it. “It would be hard to make up three votes,” she said.
Crouse said the many write-in votes had also been counted, but were only significant for Auditor positions where no one had run on the ballot.
Crouse said that most townships hire a professional auditor and that the auditor’s job is primarily to set salaries.