Cumberland County Clerk Celeste Riley has increased her lead by 47 votes to 1,562 over her Republican challenger, Victoria Lods, making the Democrat a strong favorite to win a third term, but county election officials – of which she is one – still don’t have a full count on the number of provisional ballots in their custody.
Two Republican county commissioners are locked in a tight race for another term, but it’s becoming increasingly likely that at least one Republican will win.
Still, Democrats are closing the gap on the new ballots counted this morning.
Republican Antonio Romero leads with 25,801 votes, with an increase of 24 votes since yesterday; the other GOP incumbent, Jospeh Sileo has 25,225 votes, 30 more than he had on the last count. Democrat Robert Austino, a former sheriff who lost his seat in 2023, is now at 25,058 votes – up 58 since Thursday – and his running mate, former County Commissioner John Capizola, has 24,513 votes, 68 more than he did one day ago.
That puts Sileo 167 votes in front of Austino, and Romero 1,288 ahead of Capizola.
A report filed with the Division of Elections shows 1,264 provisional ballots – up from 1,048 yesterday, and 307 vote-by-mail ballots – up from 248 –still to be processed and counted. That number could grow: a report filed with the Division of Elections said Cumberland County election officials have not yet completed their tally of provisional ballots through Tuesday evening and “will continue to count and sort” them today.
Republicans are defending a 7-0 majority; Riley is the lone Democratic county officeholder.