Fayette ballot snafu probed
The fate of dozens of extra ballots incorrectly cast at one Fayette County precinct for the special election for the 12th Congressional District will be decided by the Fayette County Election Board and then returned to the court of Judge Nancy D. Vernon. The mistake, which was halted after nearly 100 voters cast paper ballots at the North Union Township Precinct 4 polling place, occurred when first-time Judge of Elections Amber Lilley incorrectly handed out duplicate ballots for the special election.
Only members of political parties other than Democratic or Republican were supposed to receive a ballot with only the special election candidates on it. However, Lilley handed out both the separate sheet with the special election candidates and the Democratic and Republican ballots, which also had the special election candidates on it, to all voters.
During a hearing Tuesday night, Vernon ordered that the election board, which includes Commissioners Vincent Zapotosky and Angela M. Zimmerlink as well as attorney Mark Mehalov, along with attorney James T. Davis, representing the Democratic Party and the Mark Critz campaign and attorney Gary Altman, representing the Republican Party and the Tim Burns campaign, to make an official tabulation of the paper ballots.
Critz defeated Burns by more than 10,000 votes throughout the district, according to unofficial results. A third candidate, Libertarian Demo Agoris finished a very distant third.
The count of the paper ballots cast at the precinct was made after 10 p.m. and then returned to Vernon, who ruled that the election board make a further determination of the paper ballots in question and return to Vernon for further consideration.
Zapotosky said Wednesday that a review of the paper ballots in question revealed that a total of 93 Republicans and Democrats were given duplicate ballots for the special election and three people of other parties also were given ballots.
Zapotosky said, upon reviewing the ballots, it was determined that all the Democrats and Republicans voted on both the ballot they were supposed to use and the extra ballot. A determination must be made on what to do with the extra ballots, which would include three that were cast by people of other parties. There is no way to know which candidate or candidates the voters selected.
Zapotosky said there was not one “under vote,” meaning that every voter that was given two ballots voted for the special election on each of them.
He said the election board will likely meet next week to determine how to handle the ballots in question.
Zapotosky said there should not have been a special election on the day of the primary.
“Under normal circumstance, the error wouldn’t happen,” Zapotosky said. “Special elections are just that – special. It was confusing and it should be about preserving the integrity of the process even if it costs extra money.”
Gov. Ed Rendell decided to hold the special election on the same day as the primary to save money.
The special election was necessitated by the unexpected death of U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, earlier this year. Critz formerly worked for Murtha.
The district includes all of Greene County and portions of eight other counties, including Fayette.
Larry Blosser, director of the Fayette County election bureau, said having a special election on the same day as a primary hasn’t occurred since he has worked for the county election bureau since 1984.
Blosser said that Tuesday was “just a hectic day for the judge (of elections).”