Greene officials work to measure impact of ballot error
While votes cast on Election Day are fully accounted for in Greene County, officials are working this week to determine the impact of an error on mail-in ballots that instructed voters to choose three commissioner candidates instead of two.
Voters already received a second ballot that corrected a different error but left incorrect directions. The error was caught too late in the election season to send out a third round of ballots, leaving voters with the options of filling out new ballots before the election or provisional ballots at their polling places on Election Day.
Those who followed the errant instructions would not have their vote in the commissioners race counted.
With day-of votes counted, incumbent Commissioner Betsy Rohanna McClure and newcomer Jared Edgreen, both Republicans, won handily Tuesday with 31% and 33% of the vote respectively.
Incumbent Blair Zimmerman will remain the lone Democrat on the board of commissioners after taking about 20% of the vote. Christine Bailey, the other Democrat in the race, lagged 880 votes behind Zimmerman.
According to the Department of State, 1,848 mail-in ballots were sent out with 1,430 going to Democrats, 372 to Republicans and 46 to non-affiliated voters.
On Wednesday, Greene County director of elections Eric Finch said they have separated ballots that were returned prior to the revised version going out from other mail-in ballots.
The plan is to develop a list of voters who submitted the initial ballot but not the revised ballot. As of Wednesday’s deadline, the actual counting of mail-in votes had not yet started, so it was not clear how many in the county may have mistakenly voted for three commissioners.
“No envelopes have even been opened,” Finch said.
On Tuesday, county solicitor Robert “Gene” Grimm filed a petition in Greene County court on behalf of the elections board seeking a hearing for guidance on how to count the ballots that weren’t corrected.
According to the filing, the Pennsylvania Department of State directed the county to count those ballots once they have determined who did and who did not submit a new ballot.
However, President Judge Louis Dayich on Wednesday denied the request for a hearing with no written explanation.
Outgoing Commissioner Mike Belding said they are hoping by Friday to have an understanding of how the ballot error impacted the race, if at all.