One of Luzerne County’s four new mail box-style drop boxes is seen here. Luzerne County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo released notices she sent to the state Friday about plans to address a ballot error in Plymouth Township discovered Thursday and another one that has surfaced in Bear Creek.
                                 File photo

One of Luzerne County’s four new mail box-style drop boxes is seen here. Luzerne County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo released notices she sent to the state Friday about plans to address a ballot error in Plymouth Township discovered Thursday and another one that has surfaced in Bear Creek.

File photo

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Luzerne County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo released notices she sent to the state Friday about plans to address a ballot error in Plymouth Township discovered Thursday and another one that has surfaced in Bear Creek.

Crocamo also informed the state of a ballot error in Shickshinny but said that was the borough’s fault because it incorrectly informed the county there were four council seats open instead of three.

In both the Plymouth Township and Bear Creek cases, Crocamo said the error was made by the county’s voting system vendor — Dominion Voting Systems Inc. — and not detected by the county election bureau during proofing of the ballots in late August or early September when the bureau signed off on the ballots.

Mail ballots the county sent to 323 Plymouth Township voters incorrectly stated one supervisor seat was open when it should have been two. Joseph Yudichak and Thomas Kachurak are running.

In Bear Creek, the candidate names for the ballot positions of tax collector and constable were switched on mail ballots. Each candidate is running unopposed. Crocamo said she is still verifying how many ballots were sent in the municipality.

The county’s planned remedies, according to her communication to the Pennsylvania Department of State:

Voters who appear at the polls on Election Day Nov. 2 will have correct ballots.

The bureau will resend corrected ballots to mail voters and institute protocols to ensure voters who return both ballots will not inadvertently vote twice.

Letters will be sent to impacted voters with the correct ballot informing them of the error.

If they have already returned their previous ballot, the election bureau will hold it until a corrected ballot is received and then destroy the previous one.

If they do not vote with a corrected ballot, the county will count all votes from the original one returned except for those in the races with errors — constable and tax collector in Bear Creek and supervisor in Plymouth Township.

In Plymouth Township, the top two vote-getters will be elected, and there are only two candidates on the ballot. Both Bear Creek candidates will presumably secure the most votes to win because they are each running unopposed.

While the number of mail ballots sent in Plymouth Township was verified — 323 — Crocamo said she is still researching the number sent to voters who requested them in Bear Creek.

The letters to voters in both municipalities apologize for the error and assure that new procedures for ballot production and proofing are being put in place to ensure this problem does not occur again.

Voters are advised to contact the election bureau at 570-825-1715 if they have any questions.

Mail ballots must be returned to the county election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Dominion came under fire in this year’s May primary when headers of Republican ballots on the electronic devices at polling places were incorrectly labeled as Democratic ones.

Dominion, which also is retained by the county to program ballots onto the devices, said human error at the company caused the data entry typographical mistake. The county administration also acknowledged it did not independently test the ballots after they were programmed into the machines, relying on the company to do that task.

Going forward, the county administration said it plans do its own independent test of the header and ballots after programming, before the machines are sealed for delivery to polling places.

Shickshinny

Crocamo told the state that Shickshinny has the wrong number of open borough council seats on the ballot — four instead of the correct three — because the certification document received from the borough indicated four open seats should appear on the ballot.

The election bureau requires each municipality to certify the offices and terms that should appear on the ballot.

“We will provide a courtesy notice to Shickshinny voters that voters may select up to three candidates in the contest. No changes will be made to any ballots,” Crocamo said.

Borough Mayor Brenda Long said she will investigate which borough representative provided the incorrect information to the county. However, she said she informed the county election bureau after the primary that the wrong number of seats were listed and questions why it was not corrected for the general.

The three open seats are currently held by James Wido, Candice Kruczek and Rosalie Whitebread, Long said.

Those three are listed on the ballot along with Jessica Bolles and Sonja M. Sprague.

With voters choosing four in the primary, both parties nominated Bolles, Whitebread and Kruczek. Wido received the most primary votes — 39 — on the Democratic side, and Sprague was the top Republican vote-getter in the primary, receiving 67.

“What are you going to do with the fourth person?” Long said. “This is not fair to people.”

Duryea

Borough Council President Jeffrey Bauman also said the borough had informed the election bureau of the need to list a borough council seat on the Nov. 2 ballot to fill the unexpired term of Lois Hanczyc, who died in May. She would have served through December 2023.

Bauman said the election bureau indicated it had not been informed, and the bureau has not resolved the matter. The seat is not listed on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Crocamo said she will be meeting with Bauman to review the matter and determine what should be done.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.