Election board meeting scheduled to address alleged issues in Bullskin Township
When members of Fayette County Election Board meets Thursday, they will hear from a failed candidate for Bullskin Township supervisor who has expressed concerns about how things were handled at two polling places in the township during the November election.
David Butler, in an April 11 letter, asked to be put on the agenda for meeting, which will be held at 2 p.m. in the Public Safety Building on East Main Street. The election board is comprised of Commissioners Al Ambrosini, Vincent Zapotosky and Angela M. Zimmerlink.
Butler indicated in his letter that he is concerned about how things were done at Bullskin Township 2 and 3 during the Nov. 8 general election.
At one polling place, Butler alleged that poll workers were “prompting voters on how and who to vote for in the write-in slot.”
In another location, Butler alleged his poll watchers were made to leave even though they had poll watching certificates with them. Also in that precinct, absentee ballots were not counted, Butler alleged.
“I know these actions took place for a fact, and can provide names and numbers of people who have first-hand witnessed them,” Butler wrote.
Butler won the Democratic nod in the primary, and was unopposed in the general election for supervisor. However, Scott Keefer, incumbent for that seat ousted by Butler’s primary victory, waged a write-in campaign.
After successfully petitioning a judge to count 61 write-in votes, Keefer ended up with seven more votes than Butler, and won the six-year term.
The meeting notice indicates that the board is meeting “to hear concerns regarding absentee and write-in votes in Bullskin Township,” but two others have also asked to be placed on the agenda.
State Rep. Timothy Mahoney, D-South Union Township, and Uniontown resident Michael Cavanagh each submitted letters asking to also be put on the agenda.
In his letter, Mahoney wrote that he has “great concern for the election process of Fayette County.”
The concern is over “some recent incidents from the primary election of 2012 in the 51st legislative district,” Mahoney said in the letter.
Cavanagh, who filed to run against Mahoney but was thrown off the ballot because of a prior criminal record, indicated that he also had something important to discuss with the board.
“I have important issues of great concern to the election board to be presented at this meeting,” Cavanagh wrote in his letter
Both Mahoney and Cavanagh declined to be more specific about what matters they had to bring before the board.