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Together, all three of the Republican candidates for Fayette County Commissioner received a total of just 6,851 votes in the May primary election, as per county election bureau and news report figures.
In the May primary, loser Marilyn Cellurale received 1,833 votes, while Angela Zimmerlink and Dave Lohr received 2,743 and 2,275 each.
In sharp contrast -- and until the final tally won't be known on Dec. 1 or Dec. 5 -- Zimmerlink holds a close lead at 8,840 votes to Lohr's 8,828 in the recent fall general election.
None, some or all of another 44 votes -- the sum of infamous 31 Absentee Ballots and the remaining 13 Provisional ballots held in limbo by the county election board -- could be added to those two candidates' totals before it's all said and done.
Since Fayette County, reportedly, has about 21,000 registered Republicans and about 63,000 registered Democrats, it would be most interesting to have more specific data about the recent general election.
Specifically, did a few thousand more Republicans of record number really show up at the polls last month to account for the two Republican candidates getting 17,668 votes? Did many Republican voters vote a straight ticket? Or did many Democrats vote for one or even both of the two Republican candidates?
While we wait for the names of those absentee and provisional ballot voters to be displayed and possibly challenged, and until the final tally is known, we know little else for fact. However, we figure that it's safe to assume the following things:
1.) The 1,833 voters that backed loser Cellurale in the primary, most likely backed Lohr this time around in the general election, and either did not cast their second allowed vote or used it to vote for a Democratic candidate. There's probably no safer bet in the county to make than on this notion.
2.) The other almost safe given bet would be that many registered Democrats also voted for one of the Republican candidates, and that a smaller number of Democrats might have even voted for both Zimmerlink and Lohr. This notion could account for a close difference the Republican candidates had in an unusually rare close showing behind the Democrat winners.
So while the back and forth banter continues, separating brothers at the lunch counter, about the Election Board ignoring state regulations that disallow late absentee ballots, it's a shame that those complaining about the board's decision to count late absentee ballots are perceived as ''whining Tea Baggers'' by some Republicans and Democrats who backed Lohr.
Many of us old enough to recall Lohr once upset that he lost a long-ago election because of voter fraud have to wonder what has become of that man. It's one thing to shake the hand of an enemy, because it is unwise to hold grudges, after all.
That Lohr continues to go along with the charade of the Election Board and to believe that the end justifies the means is quite sad. One of the saddest chapters in the county's political history currently is being written, with him playing the part of a main character.
Had there not been voter fraud years ago and had he won instead, Lohr would have screamed bloody murder if an election board a week later tried to nix his victory by allowing late absentee ballots.
Those of us same Democrats and Republicans, screaming foul now for a fair 2011 election, definitely, most definitely, would have also screamed foul back then as well for him.
We saw him as being a much better person, just like one of us, someone who would not have ever allowed himself to be this shamefully used, way back when.
jt
26 Nov11
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