Downingtown Election Update As 1,663 Votes Remain To Be Counted

DOWNINGTOWN, PA — The ballot count was nearly complete as Chester County issued its latest update.

Chesco voter turnout was 38 percent in Pennsylvania's 2021 Municipal General Election, according to Chester County Voter Services. On Thursday, just over 39,118 of 40,781 mail-in votes had been counted and added to Tuesday's in-person vote count. As of Friday afternoon, those numbers had not been updated nor were final calls made.

In Downingtown Borough's West Ward, four candidates ran for two seats on the Borough Council.

Leading as the vote count neared finalization was Independent candidate Lindsay Helm with 29 percent of the counted vote, and 408 votes. Steven J. Plaugher had 370 votes, and Democrats Kellyn Handforth and Brad Horstmann followed. Handforth had 318 votes and Horstmann had 281 votes for his re-election.

In the East Ward, Democrat Angela Howard ran uncontested and had 667 votes in the last update. Democrat Joseph Ferris took 662 votes in his unopposed run to fill an unexpired two-year term in the East Ward.

Likewise, Phil Dague ran unopposed for re-election as Mayor of Downingtown Borough and took in 94 percent of the vote, at 1,304 votes. There were 74 write-in votes for Mayor.

Downingtown Area School District Seats

In DASD's Region 2, Democrat Madhu Gurthy was outpacing by 7 percentage points Republican Christopher Philips as the latest results posted. Gurthy had 53 percent of the vote and 1,531 votes, while Philips had 1,341 votes, and 46 percent of the vote.

In DASD's tighter Region 4 race, Republican Margie Miller had 51 percent of the vote, and 1.163 votes, while Democrat Rebecca Britton garnered 1,107 votes and 48 percent.

In Region 6, Democrat LeeAnn Wisdom had 1,452 votes and 53 percent, while Republican Greg Simotas had 46 percent of the vote and 1,252 votes, in the last update.

In Region 8 Republican Rachel Gibson led with 1,106 votes while Democrat Mindy Ross trailed with 1,031 votes. Gibson's votes accounted for 51 percent and Ross's were 48 percent of the votes counted.

These numbers are the latest available update from Chester County Voter Services. As of Friday afternoon, 1,663 mail-in votes remained to be counted and reported.

Make sure you know what's happening in your town. Sign up to get Patch emails and don't miss any local news: https://patch.com/subscribe.