Belle Vernon Borough Council write-in candidate loses election after votes tossed out due to name issue
BELLE VERNON, Pa. (KDKA) — A man who ran as a write-in candidate for Belle Vernon Borough Council lost after more than three dozen votes were tossed out.
The issue is how the candidate's name was written in.
"I felt like I got ripped off, which I did," said Edward A. Stasko of Belle Vernon.
The longtime Belle Vernon resident feels cheated.
"I was on council once before and everybody knows I was on council," he said. " I couldn't believe they said they didn't know who Jr. or Sr. was."
Stasko ran as a write-in candidate for borough council in November. He posted things on social media and passed cards out at the polling place on Election Day. In the end, he believes he got more votes than write-in candidate Michael Amoroso.
But the Fayette County Board of Elections did not count the votes, saying there were two Edward Staskos registered to vote within the district: Edward Stasko Sr. and Edward Stasko Jr.
A letter dated Nov. 20 says "because the election board cannot determine who should correctly receive these write-in votes, they have determined none of the write-in votes cast for Edward A. Stasko and variations of that name can be counted."
Stasko's wife, Denise, peppered the mayor and council for not doing enough to get answers. Her son can't even run for office since he has a state job.
"Why didn't you question that? Common sense, someone has the majority vote," she said to leaders on Tuesday.
"M'am, I'm only going by what the county rules are," a council member said.
Since the election is certified, all Edward A. Stasko can do is fight in court. He has hired attorney Douglas Sepic.
"I was really stunned," the attorney said. "I've never seen anything like this before. I've been involved in quite a number of election cases and this was very unusual."
"We are looking into whether there is an avenue outside of the election code to get Mr. Stasko seated as a council member because he is truly the person who was elected by the public to fill that seat," he added.
Sepic pointed out that a candidate is not required by law to use a designated "Sr."
