Pennsbury School District elections (2017)
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Four of the nine seats on the Pennsbury School District school board in Pennsylvania were up for by-district general election on November 7, 2017. Two Region 1 seats and two Region 3 seats were on the ballot. All candidates in this race cross-filed to appear on both the Democratic and Republican primary ballots. A partisan primary election was held on May 16, 2017.
Region 1 incumbents Debra Wachspress and Joshua L. Waldorf ran unopposed in the primary and general election. In her bid for re-election, Region 3 incumbent Alison Smith faced Nancy Lawson and Christine Toy-Dragoni in the primary. Toy-Dragoni and Lawson won the Democratic nominations and moved on to the general, and Smith and Lawson won the Republican nominations. Lawon and Toy-Dragoni ultimately defeated the incumbent in the general election.[1][2][3]
These candidates could have faced independent candidates in the general election. However, no independent candidate filed by the August 1, 2017, deadline to get on the ballot.[4]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Pennsbury School District school board is composed of nine members elected by district to four-year, staggered terms. Five seats were up for election on November 3, 2015, and four seats were up for election in November 7, 2017.
Cross-filing
Pennsylvania permits school board candidates to cross-file in primary elections. This means that a candidate may file to run in the primary election for both the Democratic and Republican parties. A cross-filed candidate can advance to the general election by winning one or both of the partisan primaries. This maximizes a candidate’s chances of advancing to the general as they have two ways to win in the primary round. If the candidate wins only one, they face the winner of the other primary in the general election. Cross-filers who win both primaries may still face independent candidates in the general election.
General candidate requirements
To run for a school board in Pennsylvania, one must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, and a resident of the school district for at least one year before the election date. To run in this 2017 school board election, partisan candidates had to file for office by March 7, 2017, and independent candidates had to file by August 1, 2017.[5][6]
Voter requirements
To vote in Pennsylvania, a resident must be a U.S. citizen for at least one month and a resident of the district in which he or she is registering for at least 30 days before the election. A voter must be at least 18 years of age by the next election date. The deadline to register to vote before the primary election was April 17, 2017, and the deadline to register to vote before the general election was October 10, 2017.[7]
- See also: Voting in Pennsylvania and Voter identification laws by state
Candidates and results
Region 1 general
Results
| Pennsbury School District, Region 1 General Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic/Republican |  Joshua L. Waldorf Incumbent |
51.01% | 5,884 | |
| Democratic/Republican | Debra Wachspress Incumbent |
48.99% | 5,650 | |
| Total Votes | 11,534 | |||
| Source: Bucks County Election Results, "Municipal Election Tuesday, November 07, 2017," accessed November 8, 2017 These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available. | ||||
Candidates
 Debra Wachspress 
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Joshua L. Waldorf
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Region 3 general
Results
| Pennsbury School District, Region 3 General Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic/Republican | Nancy Lawson |
46.26% | 4,294 | |
| Democratic | Christine Toy-Dragoni |
30.37% | 2,819 | |
| Republican | Alison Smith Incumbent | 23.38% | 2,170 | |
| Total Votes | 9,283 | |||
| Source: Bucks County Election Results, "Municipal Election Tuesday, November 07, 2017," accessed November 8, 2017 These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available. | ||||
Candidates
 Alison Smith
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Nancy Lawson
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 Christine Toy-Dragoni
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Region 1 primary
Democratic results
| Pennsbury School District, Region 1 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Joshua L. Waldorf Incumbent |
50.60% | 969 | |
| Democratic | Debra Wachspress Incumbent |
49.40% | 946 | |
| Total Votes | 1,915 | |||
| Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed June 21, 2017 | ||||
Republican results
| Pennsbury School District, Region 1 Republican Primary Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Joshua L. Waldorf Incumbent |
50.06% | 434 | |
| Republican | Debra Wachspress Incumbent |
46.14% | 400 | |
| Write-in votes | 3.81% | 33 | ||
| Total Votes | 867 | |||
| Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed June 21, 2017 | ||||
Region 3 primary
Democratic results
| Pennsbury School District, Region 3 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Christine Toy-Dragoni |
42.34% | 898 | |
| Democratic | Nancy Lawson |
34.37% | 729 | |
| Democratic | Alison Smith Incumbent | 23.29% | 494 | |
| Total Votes | 2,121 | |||
| Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed June 21, 2017 | ||||
Republican results
| Pennsbury School District, Region 3 Republican Primary Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Alison Smith Incumbent |
52.16% | 508 | |
| Republican | Nancy Lawson |
32.34% | 315 | |
| Republican | Christine Toy-Dragoni | 15.50% | 151 | |
| Total Votes | 974 | |||
| Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed June 21, 2017 | ||||
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Pennsylvania elections, 2017
The Pennsbury School District general election shared the ballot with elections for:[4]
- State judges
- Local trial court judges
- District attorney
- Sheriff
- Prothonotary
- Recorder of deeds
- County controller
The Pennsbury School District primary election shared the ballot with primary elections for state judges, local courts, and Bucks County district attorney, sheriff, prothonotary, recorder of deeds, and controller.[2]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for this Pennsylvania school board election in 2017:[8]
| Deadline | Event |
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| March 7, 2017 | Partisan candidate filing deadline |
| April 17, 2017 | Deadline to register to vote before the primary election |
| May 16, 2017 | Primary election day |
| August 1, 2017 | Independent candidate filing deadline |
| October 10, 2017 | Deadline to register to vote before the general election |
| November 7, 2017 | General election day |
Endorsements
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign finance
Debra Wachspress, Joshua L. Waldorf, and Nancy Lawson signed waivers exempting them from campaign finance reporting, according to the Bucks County Board of Elections.[9]
Ballotpedia was unable to obtain campaign finance reports submitted by candidates in this race. The Bucks County Board of Elections does not release campaign finance reports electronically and requires a fee to release hard copies.
| 2017 Campaign Finance Deadlines in Pennsylvania[10] | |
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| Date | Deadline |
| May 5, 2017 | 2nd Friday Pre-Primary report due |
| June 15, 2017 | 30-Day Post-Primary report due |
| October 27, 2017 | 2nd Friday Pre-Election report due |
| December 7, 2017 | 30-Day Post-Election report due |
School board candidates in Pennsylvania were required to report their campaign finance activity. Those who spent or received more than $250 in a reporting period had to file full reports. Those below the threshold had to file forms to declare they were exempt from reporting. Candidates could have, but were not required to, form committees to handle campaign finance transactions. They were not required to have separate bank accounts for campaign purposes.[11]
The table to the left details the four campaign finance deadlines in 2017.[10]
Past Elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Region 2
Region 3Four-year term
Two-year term
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What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
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About the district
- See also: Pennsbury School District, Pennsylvania
The Pennsbury School District is located in eastern Pennsylvania in Bucks County. The seat of county government is Doylestown. Bucks County was home to an estimated 626,399 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau. The district was the 16th-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 10,156 students.[12][13]
Demographics
Bucks County outperformed Pennsylvania as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 37.4 percent of county residents had obtained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 28.6 percent for state residents. The median household income in the county was $77,568, while it was $53,599 for the entire state. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 6.3 percent, while that rate was 13.2 percent for all state residents.[13]
| Racial Demographics, 2015[13] | ||
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| Race | Bucks County (%) | Pennsylvania (%) |
| White | 89.1 | 82.6 |
| Black or African American | 4.2 | 11.7 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Asian | 4.8 | 3.4 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Two or More Races | 1.6 | 1.9 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 5.0 | 6.8 |
Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Pennsbury School District Pennsylvania election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Pennsbury School District | Pennsylvania | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed May 16, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bucks County, "Unofficial Candidate List," accessed April 7, 2017
- ↑ Bucks County Election Results, "Municpal Election Tuesday, November 07, 2017," accessed November 8, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bucks County, "Candidate List Municipal Election, November 7, 2017," accessed October 25, 2017
- ↑ Pennsylvania School Boards Association, "How to Run for School Board," accessed March 21, 2017
- ↑ Pennsylvania Department of State, "2017 Election Calendar," accessed March 21, 2017
- ↑ VotesPA, "How to Register," accessed June 10, 2014
- ↑ Pennsylvania Department of State, "2017 Election Calendar," accessed March 30, 2017
- ↑ Elisabeth Moore, "Email exchange with Thomas Freitag, Bucks County Election Coordinator," June 20, 2017
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pennsylvania Department of State, "2017 Election Calendar," accessed April 19, 2017
- ↑ Pennsylvania Department of State, "Campaign Finance Reporting Law," accessed January 15, 2014
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 United States Census Bureau, "Bucks County," accessed March 23, 2017
| Pennsbury School District elections in 2017 | |
| Bucks County, Pennsylvania | |
| Election date: | Primary: May 16, 2017 General: November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | Region 1: Incumbent, Debra Wachspress (D/R) • Incumbent, Joshua L. Waldorf (D/R) Region 3: Incumbent, Alison Smith (R) • Nancy Lawson (D/R) • Christine Toy-Dragoni (D) |
| Important information: | What's at stake? |
