A tie-breaker conducted by the Allegheny County Department of Elections to decide who will take a seat on Bellevue Council in January may not count after all. A decision by the state's Commonwealth Court could be what determines whether incumbent Democrat Jane Braunlich will lose her seat to Republican challenger David Piet.

The vote totals on election night, Nov. 3, put Braunlich ahead of Piet by one vote for the second of two first ward seats to be filled by voters. That lasted about a week, until an uncounted absentee ballot was found in the trunk of a first ward judge of election's car. That ballot contained a vote for Piet.

The county elections department declared the race a tie at 210 votes apiece. Braunlich filed a petition with the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, asking that the elections department be ordered not to count the ballot because of the violation of the state election law that mandates that absentee ballots be opened at the local polling place on election day and people given an opportunity to challenge the eligibility of the ballot and absentee voter. That petition was rejected by Judge Joseph James, who instead gave Braunlich an opportunity to challenge the vote.

A "casting of lots" was conducted by the elections department on Monday to determine the winner of the council seat. Both Piet and Braunlich drew numbers from a container. Piet's number was higher, and he was declared the winner of the election.

Now, however, Braunlich will appeal the county court judge's ruling, and ask the state's Commonwealth Court to do what she believes the lower court should have done -- throw out the absentee ballot.

Braunlich said that the decision to appeal is less a matter of winning a council seat than it is preserving election law and the credibility of voting procedures. She said that the lower court's ruling essentially said that there was no penalty for violating state law that says absentee ballots must be opened at the poll on election day, which could lead to any number of abuses in the future.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled recently, in a case involving a Bellevue resident who was seeking county office, that absentee ballots must be rejected when mandates of the election code are violated. In that case, dozens of absentee ballots were not counted because they had not been delivered to the Allegheny County Elections Department as required by state law. The Supreme Court made clear that local elections officials do not have the authority to waive provisions of the election code.

Election department officials said that the temporary loss of absentee ballots is not an uncommon occurrence.