Election 2017: Jim Thorpe area voting results

In the three municipalities in the Jim Thorpe area — Penn Forest and Kidder townships and the Borough of Jim Thorpe — there was only one contested race in Tuesday’s General Election. There was, however, a contest for positions on the Jim Thorpe Area School District Board of Education.

Penn Forest Township

In Penn Forest Township, Republican Tom Cross defeated Democrat Roger L. Meckes, 592 to 546, to win the six-year term on the township’s board of supervisors.

Meckes, however, was unopposed for the two-year term on the board, collecting 675 complimentary votes.

In other township balloting, tax collector Josiah Behrens III, a Democrat, was unchallenged in pursuit for his second four-year term. He tallied 854 token votes to easily top the ballot.

There were no candidates on the ballot for the six-year term on the board of auditors that was available.

Jim Thorpe School Board

In the balloting for six seats on the Jim Thorpe Area School District Board of Education, which encompasses the five voting districts in both Jim Thorpe and Penn Forest Township, as well as Kidder Township-South, there were five candidates for four four-year terms, and two candidates for two two-year terms.

In the race for the four-year terms, the winners were Gerald Strubinger, Ron Marciante and Dennis J. McGinley Jr., who all appeared on both the Democratic and Republican ballots, and Republican Glenn F. Confer Sr.

Strubinger led the way with 1,681 votes, followed by Marciante with 1,669 and McGinley with 1,652. Confer won the fourth position over Democrat John P. Ciavarella Jr. by a vote of 1,327 to 982.

For the two two-year terms, Marciante, who appeared on both ballots, collected 1,673 votes, while Democrat Wilmer P. Redline Jr. tallied 1,270.

Jim Thorpe

There were no contests for positions in Jim Thorpe Borough. Mayor Michael J. Sofranko, a Republican, was unopposed in pursuit of another four-year term in that office. He received 958 token votes. Democrat Terry M. McElmoyle was also unopposed. He topped the borough’s ballot with 995 votes to win re-election to another four-year term of office.

In the borough council balloting, where four four-year terms of office were up for grabs, there were only four candidates. Winning the seats were Democrats Thomas Highland, with 783 votes, Joanne Klitsch, 678, Gregory Strubinger, 671, and Edith Lukasevich, 670. Klitsch and Lukasevich appeared on both ballots.

Kidder Township

There were no contested races in Kidder Township, where two six-year terms on the board of supervisors were available and there were only two candidates. Winning with token votes were Thomas L. Bradley Sr., who appeared on both ballots and collected 247 votes, and Republican Larry Polansky, who tallied 213.

Tax collector Kim M. Ginopolas, a Democrat who appeared on both ballots, won re-election to another four-year term in that office. She collected 287 token votes.

There were no candidates for the six-year term on Kidder’s board of auditors.

Editor’s Note: The vote totals reported in this story do not necessarily include the results of absentee votes. The county elections bureau reported the vote totals are unofficial and subject to the tabulations of the absentee ballots that were not able to be counted in some races last night due to technical difficulties with scanners used to count the absentee ballots.