- Panella, 32, resides in Forks Township
- He faced Nancy Aaroe, of Bethlehem Township
- County judges serve 10-year terms
EASTON, Pa. — With a decisive majority in unofficial results, Democrat Brian Panella declared victory late Tuesday in the race for Northampton County judge.
Unofficial results show Panella received 54.6% of votes cast to Nancy Aaroe's 45.3%, amounting to a more than 6,000-vote lead.
Because of county voting machine issues, precincts switched to using paper emergency and provisional ballots for part of Tuesday morning.
These paper ballots won't be counted until Thursday; elections officials expected to have a clearer picture Wednesday morning of how many paper ballots are outstanding.
Aaroe campaign spokesman Andres Weller said she had not yet conceded, and would wait until a clearer picture of the outstanding paper ballots emerges.
Panella, 32, of Forks Township, is on track to serve a 10-year term on the county Court of Common Pleas. County judges are responsible for hearing major civil and criminal cases, appeals from minor courts and matters involving children and families.
He fills the vacancy left when Stephen Baratta resigned from the bench late last year to run for district attorney, a position he is on track to assume in January. Panella is the son of longtime county judge and now state Superior Court President Judge Jack Panella.
Both Brian Panella and Aaroe ran as the "most experienced" candidate in the race.
Aaroe, of Bethlehem Township, ran on her 33 years practicing law, and said stints as a public defender, prosecutor, and private-practice family law attorney have given her a breadth of experience and expertise her opponent couldn't match.
Panella's campaign countered that, though he has only been a lawyer for about seven years, his work as a hearing officer deciding tax appeals and custody master overseeing child custody settlement conferences offered judge-like experience that practicing law for longer couldn't outweigh.
The general election contest closely resembled the spring's primaries for county judge, when each candidate ran for both the Republican and Democratic nominations.
