Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Luzerne County Republicans are trying to reach voters who left their polling places without casting ballots due to a ballot mislabeling error on the electronic machines.
Their message: Return to the polls before they close at 8 p.m. to vote one of three ways.
Concerned voters were disenfranchised, the county’s Republican Party filed a court action in the county Court of Common Pleas. After negotiations with county officials and the county Democratic Party leaders, they agreed:
• County Republicans uncomfortable with the electronic ballot marking devices will have two paper ballot options: emergency ballots or provisional ballots.
Both types of ballots are filled out by hand. Emergency ones are then fed into the tabulators/scanners at polling places, while provisional ones are sealed in envelopes for separate processing.
Either way, officials agreed in the court action that the provisional ballots will be accepted without requiring an affirmation involving two separate signatures by voters — a step that may be unfamiliar to voters and cause their ballots to be disqualified.
• Republican paper ballots cast at the polls will be processed with other returns tonight instead of setting them aside for adjudication at a later date.
• All voting machines, associated equipment and documentation will be secured and locked at a county location in case either party wants to conduct further reviews.
County officials said a coding error caused all county Republican ballots to contain a Democratic heading when they appeared on the screens of ballot marking devices at polling places.
Election officials insist, however, that all candidates and races on the ballots are correct and that the device paper printouts used to officially cast the ballot are accurate.
Attorney Gene M. Molino, who filed the court action as parliamentarian of the county Republican Party, said he had no evidence or reports that the paper printouts were incorrect.
The court action was an attempt to make sure all Republicans were free to vote with no obstacles due to the error that caused the ballot that popped up on screens to say “official Democratic ballot,” he said.
“We wanted to ensure that all Republican voters’ votes are legitimately counted,” Molino said.
Representing the county Democratic Party, attorney Neil T. O’Donnell said everyone involved in the settlement discussions wholeheartedly supported the measures.
“Everybody wanted the same thing — to make sure all voters had the opportunity to vote,” O’Donnell said. “Everybody, please vote.”
Waiting with others while the matter was adjudicated at the courthouse Tuesday, county Councilman Walter Griffith said he was bombarded with complaints about the ballot error since the polls opened at 7 a.m. A Republican candidate for county controller, Griffith questioned why the error was not detected through testing checks after the machines were programmed.
County Election Director Bob Morgan said the error occurred during vendor programming of the devices and impacted all Republican ballots countywide.
The county’s voting system from Dominion Voting Systems Inc. was implemented last year as part of a state mandate to provide a paper trail.
County Councilman Stephen J. Urban sent an email reporting the situation of a Plains Township Republican voter, saying she cast an emergency ballot early Tuesday due to the situation, but she was unable to feed it into the tabulator because they were not yet set up at that time.
“She was advised by the election official to simply hand the ballot over,” Urban said. “As far as I am concerned, our county’s primary is already tainted, and after the dust settles today, there are many in charge that need to resign immediately,” he wrote.
County Republican Chairman Justin Behrens said the party will be further investigating this matter to “instill the integrity of this election.”
“Somebody needs to be accountable for this mistake, whether it’s the county or Dominion,” Behrens said.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.