Luzerne County voting machine ‘mess’ drawing national attention

Luzerne County voters hoping to find out who will be representing them in Harrisburg and Washington may have a long wait ahead of them, as will the candidates, and the nation is watching.

It was announced earlier today that, due to a paper shortage that impacted a number of voting precincts across the county, Luzerne County polling places were ordered by County Court of Common Pleas Judge Lesa Gelb to remain open until 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The extension, which has attracted national media attention (including a tweet from NBC News reporter Dasha Burns referring to the situation as a “mess”), will provide voters with extra time to cast their votes while the county has additional ballot paper delivered to the affected precincts.

But it will also likely mean that candidates running to represent the county may not learn the results of their races this evening.

119th, 118th District candidates weigh in

“Candidates won’t know who won by the end of the night,” said Alec Ryncavage, the Republican candidate for state representative in Pennsylvania’s 119th Legislative District. “This election also may be open to lawsuits.”

Ryncavage also noted that the late polling hours will impact not just voters waiting to cast their ballot, but poll workers and campaign staffers who are out working the polls.

“We’ve heard from poll workers who don’t know if they’ll be able to work until 10 p.m.,” he said.

Ryncavage’s opponent in the 119th, Democrat Vito Malacari, summed up the situation briefly and succinctly.

“It’s going to be a long night,” Malacari quipped.

Even with this unforseen change, both candidates stressed the importance of counting all votes cast and making sure that no one misses out on their chance to vote.

“We don’t want to disenfranchise any voters…we need to count all legal votes,” Malacari said.

“I trust the process, I believe in the electoral process,” Ryncavage said.

In the 118th Legislative District, which houses voters from both Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, Democratic candidate Jim Haddock offered his thoughts on the paper shortage.

“It’s an unforseen incident, I still don’t understand it,” Haddock said. “It’s frustrating, as a candidate.”

Haddock mentioned funds received by the county from a state election integrity grant that was designed to ensure counties could have their mail ballots counted by midnight on election night, and called on the county’s election workers to finish the tally on Election Night.

“Let’s find out tonight,” Haddock said. “Luzerne County should get it done tonight, if at all possible.”

8th District candidates speak

In one of the county’s two races for the U.S. House of Representatives, 8th Congressional District incumbent Matt Cartwright and his Republican opponent Jim Bognet issued statements on the voting issues in Luzerne County.

“We strongly encourage Luzerne County residents to get to their local polling location to cast their ballots for Congressman Matt Cartwright. With polling hours in the county extended to 10 P.M., know that you can still vote if you are in line by that time,” reads a statement issued by the Cartwright campaign. ” It is not too late to vote for Congressman Cartwright so we can continue the fight to protect Social Security and Medicare, fund our area’s police departments and grow our local economy.”

“We have been hearing from voters in Luzerne County about significant voting issues occurring since the moment polls opened this morning and we are taking this very seriously,” said the Bognet campaign. “While we continue to monitor the situation we are still focused on getting voters to the polls to make their voices heard. We look forward to seeing new leadership in Northeast Pennsylvania and sending Jim Bognet to Congress come January.”

Poll worker reacts to paper issue

As voters around the county learned of the paper shortage affecting their precincts, election workers stationed at the precincts had to react to the situation, as well.

“Our first clue was that we started getting texts, saying that they were having a problem with a paper shortage,” said Barbara D. Smith, a poll worker at the Back Mountain Regional EMS headquarters, the voting place for Lehman Township Districts 02 and 03.

“Then the person in charge started making calls … nobody knew anything, other than that paper was on the way.”

Smith and the other poll workers, who reported for duty at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, were able to keep their cool and their professionalism while the problem was sorted out, but there was a level of frustration involved.

“Nobody made a decision, nobody let us know what to do,” Smith said.

Around 4:30 p.m., Smith said that a fellow poll workers ran over to nearby Misericordia University to grab a ream of computer paper.

By about 6:30 p.m., Smith said that the polling place was “back online, so to speak.” With the extension of polling place hours until 10 p.m., she said that, other than having to call a dog-sitter to take her dog outside, the later deadline wouldn’t pose any problems for her, or for the rest of the staff there.

By Smith’s count, about 100 ballots were unable to be counted as a result of this issue, with votes recorded on the machines but unable to be printed and scanned.

Overall, Smith said that the main issue for her was that this was an issue that could have easily been avoided.

“Who could not have foreseen this turnout coming, giving how competitive this election is?” she asked. “Who could have not ordered enough paper?”

State advisory

The Pennsylvania Department of State issued a Facebook advisory for voters letting them know about the extended hours.

That extension does not include mail-in ballots or drop box locations, county officials said.

We will bring you more on this story — and more from the candidates — as it becomes available.