The Nov. 3 General Election could feature a historic contest between two women for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th District (Northampton, Lehigh and part of southern Monroe County), but full results won’t be known until the flood of mail-in ballots are all counted.

Lisa Scheller, president and chairwoman of Silberline Inc. in Tamaqua holds a lead of less than 1,000 votes in the tight race for the Republican nomination over Dean Browning with the winner attempting to regain the former GOP seat won two years ago by incumbent freshman Democrat Susan Wild, who was unopposed in the primary.

Wild won the seat previously held by Republican Charlie Dent, who resigned in May 2018 nearly six months before his term ended when it was known as the 15th District. The seat went unfilled until Wild won it in the General Election in November 2018.

If Scheller’s lead holds up, it would be the first time that this area’s congressional district would feature two women candidates. Wild was the first woman to ever capture the district seat.

With about 25,500 votes counted Tuesday night, Scheller led Browning by about 920 votes, but officials in Lehigh and Monroe counties said they did not expect the huge number of absentee ballots to be fully counted until sometime during the day today.

Most of the mail-in ballots in Northampton County had been counted by midnight.

President Donald Trump tweeted unequivocal support for Scheller shortly before the primary. Browning who described himself as an ardent Trump supporter tried to brand Scheller as a lukewarm supporter of the president because of her contributions to two of Trump’s 2016 primary opponents, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and her opposition to some of Trump’s tariffs on China, where Silberline has company operations and employees. Scheller’s ads have advocated strongly for the Trump administration’s platform.

There were just three state House district races that were contested in the two Lehigh Valley counties.

In the 131st District (parts of Northampton Lehigh and Montgomery counties) Milou Mackenzie of Lower Saucon Township, mother of State Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of the adjoining 134th District, has a commanding lead over her nearest rival in the four-candidate GOP race by nearly 2 to 1.

Incumbent Justin Simmons decided not to run for re-election. He endorsed Mackenzie as his successor. With a sizable number of mail-in ballots still to be tallied, Mackenzie had 1,239 votes, followed by Nathan Brown of Lehigh County with 643, Vicki Lightcap of Montgomery County, 323, and Joe Eilenberger of Lehigh County, 245. If Mackenzie’s lead holds, she will take on unopposed Democrat Kevin Branco of Northampton County in the General Election.

In the 138th District (parts of Northampton County), two Republican newcomers are seeking to succeed incumbent Marcia Hahn, who chose not to seek re-election. Ann Flood of Moore Township had 4,203 votes to 3,448 for Tony Tarsi of Lower Nazareth Township. With most mail-in ballots counted, it appears almost certain that Flood will take on unopposed Democrat Tara Zrinski in the fall.

In the heavily Democratic 22nd District (parts of Allentown), incumbent Pete Schweyer appears to have survived a strong showing from challenger Enid Santiago, a community activist. Schweyer, who is seeking his fourth term, had 1,664 votes to Santiago’s 1,528. There are no Republican candidates.

The five-week delayed Pennsylvania primaries got off to a rocky start in parts of Lehigh County, but given the obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic and first-time no-excuses-needed absentee balloting, the problems were overcome.

As predicted, the vote count proved challenging with a flood of absentee ballots hitting the polling places before the 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline. Party officials believe there were scores of ballots that are still in the mail not yet delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.

There are sure to be some serious reconfiguring before the Nov. 3 election when the number of ballots will be significantly larger.

There were several complaints from voters about poll workers not wearing masks. Lehigh County had enlisted rovers who spent the 13 hours that the polls were open traveling from place to place to talk to poll workers who were violating the mask rules.

Lehigh County’s Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said there were some minor mechanical glitches with machines, but they were quickly resolved. “This is all new to everyone,” he said.

The scene was unlike any other on an election day. There was no handshaking. In fact, some candidates were passing out complimentary bottles of hand sanitizer, and there were signs at every polling place advising voters to observe safe social distancing.

One polling site in Allentown opened 30 minutes late which caused some would-be voters to leave. Some voters went to the wrong polls, unaware that 42 sites had changed in Lehigh County. Just two polling sites changed in Northampton County.

Going into Tuesday’s primary, in the two-county area, there were 212,190 Democrats, 154,910 Republicans and 80,760 no party or third-party registered. All of these are higher than in 2018 and 2016.