Voters have their say
Record turnout for hospital, museum board elections
Voters turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots for Weston County Hospital District and Weston County Museum District candidates on May 7.
According to Denice Pisciotti, marketing and public relations director and executive assistant at Weston County Health Services, the 2024 election saw 636 voters at the Newcastle location, 136 in Upton and 38 in Osage for a total of 810 votes cast.
“This was a record in Newcastle, usually the average is under 400 voters in Newcastle, under 100 voters in Upton and under 50 voters in Osage,” Pisciotti said.
As for the 2024 election for hospital board members, Mary Rankin received the highest number of votes, with 632. A breakdown provided by Pisciotti shows 475 of those voters coming from Newcastle, 28 from Osage and 129 from Upton.
Nathan Ballard was not far behind Rankin, with a total of 589 votes. The breakdown shows 511 from Newcastle, 28 from Osage and 50 from Upton.
The other two seats will be filled by Karine Wright West and Ted Ertman, with 482 and 338 votes, respectively.
Other candidates included Henry Nessul (86 votes), Rhonda Purviance (97 votes), Benjamin Roberts (216 votes) and William Curley (254 votes).
For the museum district board, Bernie Terry was the highest vote-getter with 524, followed by Kasey Keeler with 521 and John Williamson with 453. All three candidates will join the board.
Pisciotti compared the record turnout this year with the 2022 election, which recorded 420 Newcastle voters, 71 in Upton and 40 in Osage for a total of 531 votes cast, she said.
News Letter Journal records for the 2020 election show that the highest vote-getter for hospital district board was Lanny Reimer with 264 votes, 216 of those from Newcastle, and in 2018 it was Georgenna Materi with 144 votes.
For the museum district, Jill Pischke received the most votes with 85 in 2020 and in 2018 Cindy Rhoades prevailed with 168 votes.
Back in 2012, Jimmy Long received the most votes for the hospital district with 344.
Total voter turnout for those elections were not readily available.
