Corrected Luzerne County 119th District ballots expected to be mailed Wednesday

New Nov. 5 general election ballots with the correct spelling of state Rep. Alec Ryncavage’s name have been sent to the printer and are expected to be mailed to 6,700 impacted voters on Wednesday, Luzerne County Election Director Emily Cook said Tuesday.

Dominion Voting Systems, the county’s voting equipment supplier, has taken responsibility for the misspelling in the 119th Legislative District, citing human error, and agreed to cover the cost of the corrected ballots and postcards explaining the error.

Cook said voters should contact the election bureau at 570-825-1715 if they still have not received a corrected ballot by the end of next week.

As reported when the error was discovered last Friday, voters won’t be disenfranchised if their only vote is cast through the misspelled ballot.

County Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino reiterated Tuesday that the county’s Election Board will accept the misspelled ballots and selections for Alec “Tyncavage” if the voters do not cast another ballot.

This situation will be addressed during the board’s post-election adjudication, said Molino and county Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams.

There’s precedent in the November 2023 election, when 1,557 voters in multiple Wilkes-Barre wards received new mail ballots because the initial one contained the incorrect city council candidates for those wards. The board reviewed all 600 original ballots received by the county and found 265 voters did not cast a new ballot. Those 265 ballots were tallied after verifying there were no deficiencies, such as missing inner envelopes or signature/date issues.

A difference should be noted with the Wilkes-Barre case. All ballot selections were accepted for the 265 except for the city race because the candidates were incorrect. This type of exclusion would not apply in the current error because the correct candidate was listed but misspelled, officials said.

Williams said she does not foresee any problems with the board counting the misspelled name as long as there are no signature/date/inner envelope deficiencies.

“If all that’s in order and it’s just a T instead of an R, the votes would be accepted,” Williams said.

Some voters have been questioning why new ballots had to be issued to all when some received ones with the correct spelling in the 119th District.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo said Tuesday there was no way to parse out which voters may have received the correct version. The Pennsylvania Department of State approved the county’s plan to issue new ballots districtwide, she said.

Return reminder

Completed mail ballots must be physically in the election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Two mail ballot drop boxes are available:

• Broad Street Exchange, 100 W. Broad St., Hazleton: weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. through Nov. 1 and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 4. This box is not available on Election Day.

• Penn Place main lobby, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays (Oct. 22 and 29); 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the other weekdays; and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. In addition, the box will be available on three weekends from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Oct. 19-20, Oct. 26-27 and Nov. 2-3).

A box was also installed Tuesday inside the county election bureau on the second floor of the Penn Place building to substitute for a countertop box that had been set up in the past before the bureau’s public counter area was altered for security purposes.

In addition to drop boxes and regular mail, voters have the option to bring their ballot packages, including the envelopes, to their polling place to be spoiled so they can use the ballot marking devices.

Cook said voters in the 119th District would have to bring the second-issued ballot to be voided, which includes an outer envelope labeled as “ballot update” with an active barcode unique to that voter to ensure there is no way a vote can be cast by both mail and on the machine.

Those without the second-issued ballot package can cast a paper provisional ballot at the polls, which is reviewed during board adjudication to verify no other ballots were cast.

On-demand voting

Plymouth Township voter Ronald Demchak was among those receiving a mail ballot with the misspelling, which he promptly reported to the county.

Instead of waiting for a corrected version to be sent, he decided to spend approximately an hour at Penn Place Tuesday to obtain an “on-demand” ballot.

Demchak said he wanted to resolve the matter so he did not have to worry.

Voters have the option to apply for mail ballots at the election bureau from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays until Oct. 29. On-demand ballots take time because each application must be checked and approved while the voter waits.

In total, 125 voters cast on-demand ballots Tuesday, bringing the running total to 303 since Oct. 8.

A woman from Dallas borough said she came in person because she had applied for a mail ballot three times and received no verification that her application was accepted, while her husband received his mail ballot.

“I decided to come here and straighten it out,” she said.

After waiting for approximately one hour, the woman received her mail ballot while others waiting in line applauded for her.

Voter registration

In another update, the county’s total voter registration is now 206,014, which is an increase of 896 compared to a week ago, according to the latest weekly state statistics posted Monday.

The county now has 1,445 more registered Republicans than Democrats, it said.

The registration changes since last week:

• Republicans picked up 612, for a new total of 89,233.

• Democrats added 115, bringing the total to 87,788.

• Voters with other affiliations or no affiliations grew by 169, resulting in a new count of 28,993 in that category.