A few votes remain to be counted in a hotly contested Pa. House primary race in West Philly, but it appears likely that state Rep. Amen Brown will hold onto his 10th District seat by a very narrow margin.
Brown was 50 votes ahead of the likely second-place finisher, progressive community organizer Cass Green, as of Friday afternoon. The difference is about 0.7% of the overall vote. Brown had 2,971 votes to Green’s 2,921, out of 7,395 counted so far.
Radio host Sajda Blackwell had 1,478 votes and there were 25 write-ins. With no Republicans running for the seat, the Democratic primary winner is expected to win the November general election.
Most of the ballots that must still be reviewed and possibly counted are provisionals, which voters usually cast when there are questions about their eligibility to vote. The City Commissioners Office is also still evaluating some mail ballots with signature or date errors to determine if they can be counted.
In theory, if more than 50 votes turn up for Green, she could still pull out an upset win over Brown.
However, the number of voters who not only cast provisional ballots, but also made the effort to vote in the state representative race — and for Green in particular — is almost certainly too small to change the outcome, especially given this year’s historically low voter turnout.
Provisionals “are pretty rare,” City Commissioner Lisa Deeley said Friday. “Historically, we haven’t seen a lot in that district, and most people don’t take the time on a provisional ballot to go all the way down to the legislative races.”
A turbulent second term
A win by Brown would make the race something of a replay of the 2020 primary. Four years ago, he beat Green by 183 votes of 7,689 cast, or about 2.4%, and Blackwell played the spoiler for Green, coming in third with a slightly higher vote total than she got this year.
Since then Brown has had a turbulent term, his second as a state rep. The Inquirer uncovered repeated accusations of improprieties in his business dealings, including unpaid taxes, failure to pay back investments, and a felony charge, later dropped, for fraudulently buying a house from a dead man.
A relatively moderate Democrat who has supported tough-on-crime policies and championed charter schools, he ran for mayor last year and finished in a distance sixth place in the primary. He’s almost been kicked off ballots a few times for paperwork deficiencies.
Green and others criticized him for taking large campaign contributions from Jeffrey Yass, a conservative billionaire hedge fund manager who supports charter school expansion and has funded anti-progressive PACs in Philly elections.
Green, meanwhile, is part of the city’s burgeoning progressive movement. She worked for District Attorney Larry Krasner and was endorsed by him, the teachers union, SEIU, former councilmember Helen Gym, and Working Families Party councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke.
She was also a strong fundraiser, bringing in nearly $213,000 in contributions this year to Brown’s $78,000, according to the state’s campaign finance website.
However, Brown seems to have won in part by dramatically improving his showing in part of Center City that was added to his district a few years ago, the Inquirer reported. One factor may have been an endorsement from the Democratic committee in the area’s 8th Ward, an “open ward” whose members democratically choose who to endorse.
A recount would likely not change results
The City Commissioners and their staff were reviewing mail ballots with errors on Friday and deciding which were eligible to be counted, Deeley said. There are also a small number of mail voters whose identification could not be verified; they have until Monday to contact the office and fix those problems.
Provisional ballots will be counted at the city’s election warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia on Monday, in a process open to observers, Deeley said. Each provisional will be reviewed to make sure the person is eligible to vote.
The 10th District race is the only one in which the ballot counting process has attracted significant interest this year, she said.
A candidate or a voter could also try to ask for a recount, but such a request might not succeed, and even if it did it would probably not result in a significant change in the results.
Very close vote totals in statewide races, like for governor or U.S. Senate, automatically trigger recounts, but that is not the case in local and legislative races.
A different state law specifies that, in any precinct, three voters can pay a $50 fee and file a court petition to say they believe there was fraud or error in the balloting. A judge then decides whether there was indeed a problem that justifies a potentially costly series of hand counts to make sure the vote totals are accurate.
The process has gained attention in recent years, as when election-denial groups organized petition requests in multiple counties in support of Doug Mastriano’s failed gubernatorial bid in 2022. Such requests are generally rejected for lack of evidence. Meanwhile, conflicting judicial opinions have led to some confusion over the requirements for requesting recounts.
