election 2017

Tuesday’s voter turn out of 17.2 percent in Allegheny County was slightly down from four years ago and about 6 percentage points down from eight years ago. 

Lancaster Councilwoman Danene Sorace won the city's Democratic nomination for mayor Tuesday, and will face Republican Cindy Stewart in the fall.

Urban areas tend to lean left. But the mayor's office in Lancaster has changed parties multiple times over the years.

So Sorace and her supporters say they have a legitimate contest ahead, despite an increase in Democratic voters and major improvements in Lancaster since outgoing Mayor Rick Gray took office. This also was Lancaster's first contested mayoral primary in at least 30 years and turnout was high.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto handily won the primary Tuesday night, after taking an early evening lead over opponents Darlene Harris and John Welch.

Sala Udin, Veronica Edwards and Terry Kennedy won seats on the Pittsburgh Public Schools boards Tuesday night, in the only contested board races.

Kennedy, the incumbent District 5 representative, garnered nearly twice as many votes as opponent Ghadah Makoshi.

In District 3, former city councilman Udin beat out opponent James Myers, a Schenley High School grad and outreach coordinator for the Pittsburgh Green Innovators.

And Edwards narrowly defeated incumbent Carolyn Klug for the District 9 seat.

Pennsylvania primary voters are picking candidates for open seats on the state's appeals courts Tuesday, the only statewide contests on the spring primary ballot.

Eighteen people are running for Superior Court and Commonwealth Court, while the two major parties each have a single candidate for an opening on the state Supreme Court.

Five Democrats and five Republicans are competing for four nominations to serve on Superior Court, a busy mid-level appeals court that takes criminal, civil and family court appeals from counties.

The 90.5 WESA newsroom will be offering continuously updating coverage from the polls and reporters in the field throughout the day.