The Democrat attempting a write-in bid to face state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, in November is claiming he has enough votes to get onto the ballot.

Write-in results from Tuesday's primary will not be made official for some time, but the campaign of Democrat Dan DeMarco studied election returns at half of the precincts within the state's 40th Senatorial District and claimed Mr. DeMarco -- a Ross Township commissioner -- had at least 2,200 write-in votes, far more than the 500 required to get on the ballot. Ms. Orie attempted her own write-in bid on the Democratic side and had 626 write-ins at the precincts studied.

There are 183 precincts in the district, which covers parts of Allegheny and Butler counties, and the DeMarco campaign studied returns at 93. "I'm 99 percent confident the trend will continue throughout the rest of the district," campaign manager Christine Brussalis said.

Butler County's elections bureau counted its write-in votes today, and found 576 for Mr. DeMarco and 125 for Ms. Orie. They will be certified Monday, elections director Regis Young said. Allegheny County's totals will not be known for about 10 days.

In April, Ms. Orie was charged with fraud by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.'s office, which claimed she used her state payroll for campaign purposes.

The write-in attempt was launched after that announcement.

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