Trina Schaarschmidt has secured the fifth and final seat on Upper Perkiomen's School Board. On Thursday afternoon, she defeated fellow Republican Mike Long in a tie-breaking casting of lots in Norristown.

            Montgomery County officials declared Schaarschmidt the winner after she drew the No. 8 during a the casting held in the eighth floor meeting room of the Montgomery County Commissioners, according to Megan Alt, the county's communications director.

            Long did not attend the casting of lost, according to Alt. She wrote that Lee Soltysiak, the county's chief clerk of courts, drew the No. 14 on Long's behalf. The candidate that drew the lower number was declared the winner.

            Schaarschmidt, an Upper Hanover resident, is expected to take a seat on the board during Monday night's reorganization meeting. She and Long finished with an identical total of 3,050 votes, according to unofficial vote totals. Final vote certification is scheduled to commence at 12:15 p.m. Monday, according to Alt.

            With the importance of getting the results of the 2023 General Election Certified before the next school board meeting, when the new members will be seated, Upper Perkiomen residents wait for the final, official, and certified results.

            Last week the certification of the results from the 2023 General Election were postponed due to a ruling of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.  The court's ruling declared that not counting ballots with a missing or incorrect date violates federal law. "The provision protects a citizen's right to vote by forbidding a state actor from disqualifying a voter because of their failure to provide or error in providing some unnecessary information on a voting application or ballot," Judge Susan Baxter wrote in her opinion. The court's order states that the missing or incorrect date is unnecessary information and thus should not affect a voter's eligibility to have their votes counted.

            The election certification, which was scheduled to happen on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, will be postponed to allow for the canvass and tabulation of undated and improperly dated mail-in ballots. The canvass and tabulation will began on Monday, November 27 at 10 a.m. at the Montgomery County Voters Services Warehouse.

            The Upper Perkiomen School District includes Hereford Township in Berks County.  That county planned to ...