WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County has received complaints that a glitch is causing votes cast for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to switch to opponent Hillary Clinton, but a county election official confirmed Tuesday those complaints are “100 percent” unfounded.
Michael Butera, solicitor at the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections, told the Times Leader he received at least three complaints — from polling locations in Dupont, Butler Township and Nanticoke — that people were seeing Clinton’s name come up on the polling machines after they cast their vote for the Republican businessman.
“They claimed when they were voting, they hit Trump and, when they went to verify their vote, (Clinton’s name) came up,” Butera said, noting technicians dispatched to investigate the claims found no truth to them.
“They checked and said there was no vote-flipping anywhere,” Butera said.
District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said her office is investigating similar claims lodged in Avoca, Drums and Jenkins Township, and she has contacted the FBI to field complaints on the issue.
Though the information collected so far “does not indicate criminal behavior,” the FBI’s Scranton office has been notified of the issues and will field in-person complaints over the next few days, Salavantis said.
“Naturally, this office takes the integrity of the elections process very seriously,” Salavantis said in a news release. “We urge voters to exercise caution in casting and confirming their votes. It is imperative to ensure that the vote recorded by the machine is the vote you intended to cast.”
Lake Township resident Gert Dragon said she experienced the glitch when her ballot for Trump inexplicably jumped to Clinton when she was casting her ballot Tuesday morning at the township municipal building on State Route 29.
Dragon, 75, said an election worker helped her cast her correct vote, but Dragon was shocked when her selection seemingly changed on its own to Clinton.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God,’” Dragon said. “They say corrupt; well, maybe something is going on here.”
She added: “What about older people that can’t see good or don’t double-check?”
A woman who answered the phone at the Lake Township municipal building Tuesday afternoon said election workers were unavailable, but she stated: “They’ve been notifying people to check their final choices.” Over 500 people had cast their ballot at the location, and only “a handful” reported the issue, she said. None cast the incorrect vote.
Lynette Villano, Republican state committeewoman and former county GOP chair, said she received some complaints about the phenomenon happening at the Wyoming Free Library. She said she spoke with a worker there who told her it occurred on only one voting machine and only earlier in the day.
Villano said current county GOP Chairman Ron Ferrance told her he’s fielded “a lot of reports all day.”
Ferrance end trimsaid he was in contact with county election bureau Director Marissa Crispell, “and she seems to be very up-front and conscientious. I don’t believe there’s any malice, but there seems to be a lot of smoke here.”
Ferrance said he spoke with a woman who’s been voting 40 to 50 years and described a vote flip on a machine at Kistler Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre.
“Am I buying into a conspiracy theory? No. But as far as calibration problems, I’m sure there will be greater minds than mine looking into it. If it turned out to be anything else, I’d be shocked. But with this (election) being as important as it is, it definitely needs to be looked into,” Ferrance said.
Technicians were on-call all day throughout the county to address voter complaints. Some were dispatched to look into minor issues, including people “politicking” in lines outside polling locations, Butera said.
“We’ve been getting normal complaints since 7 a.m., and we’ve addressed every complaint,” he said.
Salavantis urged those seeking to file complaints over the phone to call the Department of State in Harrisburg at 717-787-5280. Note the polling location, voting machine, time of incident and any action poll workers may have taken to correct the issue, Salavantis said.
Times Leader reporter Steve Mocarsky contributed to this report.
Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL.
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