Write-ins decide Centre County races, though some were settled by rolling dice
Results are in for Centre County elections that had no candidates on the ballot.
Centre County released write-in tallies for the Nov. 4 election Tuesday, and municipalities are one step closer to knowing who will be running their governments next year. No write-in candidate upset one who appeared on the ballot, though Therese Hollen’s spirited campaign for Benner Township supervisor came the closest with 25% of the vote.
Two men tied for an interim council seat in Philipsburg: Zach Womer and Brett Stewart, who each received three votes. Womer, a former Democratic U.S. House candidate who also tied for a Philipsburg-Osceola school board seat, is challenging state Rep. Scott Conklin in next year’s Democratic primary. Stewart, an employee of a local economic development group, recently served as the code enforcement officer for Clearfield in neighboring Clearfield County.
Tied elections were settled noon Friday during a drawing at the county elections office in Bellefonte. County officials used one-sided dice pulled from a leather-wrapped bottle to determine the winners.
Stewart, a registered Republican who said he, his wife and a friend wrote him in, won the dice roll. Womer, who said he was “a little shocked” when the county informed him he tied, said he would have accepted the position if chosen.
In Snow Shoe, Chad Marshall won two different council seats. According to state law, “no individual may hold more than one elective borough office at the same time,” meaning another candidate who finished behind him would need to take the seat. If no one accepts, it may end up vacant until the borough council fills it.
Incumbent Snow Shoe Councilman Dave Tobias was reelected with 11 votes.
In Howard Lydia Watters was reelected to council with 12 votes, while Daniel Boring won a seat in Unionville with 13. William Bruss won a Union Township supervisor seat with 45 votes.
Centre County’s only candidate-less mayoral election — Centre Hall — saw incumbent LeDon Young reelected with nine votes.
In Philipsburg-Osceola School District, the only one of the county’s school districts to not have candidates on the ballot, Womer tied with Sydnee Cookerly for the third district seat with two votes apiece, though Womer withdrew from the race before the tie was settled. Hayley Rhymestine won the fifth district with 84 votes.
Howard, Unionville, Huston Township and Union Township reelected incumbent tax collectors, while Harris Township elected a new tax collector, Bridget Armstrong, with 24 votes.
Boggs, Burnside, Gregg, Halfmoon, Snow Shoe, Spring and Worth townships each elected auditors to full terms, while Haines, Penn, Worth, Huston and Worth townships filled vacancies with write-in votes. Multiple candidates tied for auditor seats in Haines, Liberty, Miles, Patton, Rush, Snow Shoe, Taylor and Walker townships, as well as Howard.
Harris and Marion each saw the same candidates win both open auditor seats.
Notably, the virtually unknown Pennsylvania auditor general, Timothy DeFoor, placed second in the Harris and Spring Township auditor elections, garnering two and three write-in votes in the respective contests. DeFoor tied Centre County Jury Commissioner Hope Miller for auditor in Spring Township.
This story was originally published November 21, 2025 at 4:45 AM.
