The Morning After: Unofficial Election Results for the Colonial School Board

The primary election was held yesterday and there are some interesting results as it pertains to the Colonial School Board. Please note all of the results discussed below are unofficial. Turnout for this specific race was 27.80% for the Democrats and 25.04% for the Republicans.

In regards to the school board results, note that candidates have the ability to crossfile and appear on both parties ballots. All candidates running qualified for this.

The biggest news is that School Board President Felix Raimondo will not advance to the general election. On the Democratic ballot, Raimondo placed seventh out of 10, and on the Republican side he placed sixth out of 10. He was running with the Colonial Democrats for School Board (CDFSB) slate (the endorsed Democratic Party group).

On the other side, it looked like the negative ads run by the Colonial Democrats against fellow Democrat Susan Moore backfired. Moore received more votes on both the Democratic and Republican ballots than anyone else. She was running with the Protecting Colonial’s Future (PCF) slate (the unendorsed).

Overall, on the Republican ballot all five candidates from Protecting Colonial’s Future won (Susan Moore, Cathy Peduzzi, Beth Patruno, Beth Suchsland and Chris Epstein).

Overall on the Democratic side, it was mixed. As of right now, Susan Moore (PCF), Cathy Peduzzi (PCF), Leslie Finegold (CDFSB), Paula McCauley (CDFSB) and Jamina Clay-Dingle (CDFSB) won. Voters split between the two slates.

We say as of right now, because the results from the Democratic Party ballot are very close. Just three votes separate Jamina Clay-Dingle and Beth Suchsland. We have been told by sources that there may be one precinct that didn’t count its absentee ballots. Whether that has been resolved, we are not sure yet.

There is also a question about a misspelling on ballots. On April 28th, MoreThanTheCurve.com reported that Beth Patruno’s name was misspelled on absentee ballots. At the time, the county stated that the issue was limited to the absentee ballots.

Well that wasn’t the case. Yesterday, according to the county, the phonetic spelling of Beth Patruno’s name (Pawtruno) appeared on the ballots in 12 of the 27 precincts of the Colonial School District, 10 in Whitemarsh and 2 in Plymouth.

So as of right now, in November, here is how things will look in November for the general election (note the order of candidates has not been determined):

Colonial School Board Candidates
Susan Moore (D)
Paula McCauley (D)
Leslie Finegold (D)
Cathy Peduzzi (D)
Jamina Clay-Dingle (D)
Chris Epstein (R)
Beth Patruno (R)
Beth Suchsland (R)

In November, voters will be asked to vote for five candidates from the combined list. Note that while appearing on the general election ballot as Republicans, Patruno and Suchsland are registered Democrats.

We will provide an update if anything changes.