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By MELISSA DONOVAN; Times Leader Staff Writer
Thursday, May 29, 1997     Page: 10A

WILKES-BARRE — Oops.
   
Voter Services employees on Wednesday found two more errors in election
results from last week’s primary.
    The mistakes change the vote totals — but not the results — of races for
Pittston Area and Wilkes-Barre Area school boards. Director Mary Ellen Sacco
announced the errors shortly after The Times Leader began its own review of
the tabulations.
   
The latest errors are in addition to an 880-vote mistake, discovered
Tuesday after an inquiry by Ed Hayes, that turned him from a winner to a loser
in the race for a Republican nomination for Wilkes-Barre Area School Board.
   
Wednesday’s review added two votes to Al Rava’s failed bid for a Democratic
nomination for the Pittston Area School Board, Sacco said.
   
Charles Urban gained five Republican votes in his race for the Republican
nomination in Wilkes-Barre Area, Sacco said. But he still lost.
   
Such arithmetic errors are unfortunate but human, Sacco said. They were
discovered when her office began double checking the tabulation of the votes.
Sacco and her staff review the official results after every election, she
said. The review is scheduled to continue today.
   
She announced the errors shortly after two Times Leader employees began
their own review of the results of all contested state, county and school
board races. The review confirmed that the community-by-community results were
added correctly.
   
A more in-depth review of Hayes’ Republican race showed that his latest
vote total — 596 — appears to be correct. Times-Leader employees examined
the sheets on which the community-by-community results are added.
   
Correction fluid and erasure marks can be seen on several of the sheets
bearing the official, final vote totals.
   
— Times Leader staff members Mary Jo Finley and Marie Larko contributed to
this story.