Tuesday Luzerne County hearing on over 1,000 provisional ballots will be categorized

The Luzerne County Election Board’s Tuesday hearing on more than 1,000 provisional ballot challenges will advance by category, as opposed to going through each voter name individually, county Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino said Monday.

Impacted voters and polling place judges of elections will have an opportunity to testify about specific ballots when their category is addressed, Molino said.

Challenges were filed by attorneys representing the campaigns of U.S. Senate candidates Robert P. Casey Jr. and Dave McCormick.

The latest unofficial statewide vote gap between Casey and McCormick was 17,700 Monday, with McCormick in the lead. A mandatory recount also will be required due to the margin of victory being less than 0.5%.

Tuesday’s public hearing will be at 9:30 a.m. in the county Election Board’s third-floor adjudication room at the Penn Place Building, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre.

Attorneys for Casey filed most of the challenges contesting the election board’s rejection of ballots.

Paper provisional ballots are cast at polling places on Election Day and must be reviewed last by the board to verify the voters are properly registered and did not also cast a mail ballot.

Challenges included disagreements over missing inner secrecy envelopes and outer envelope signatures from voters and the judges of elections and whether voters had valid registrations making them eligible to vote.

A list of each voter and the reason their ballot has been challenged is posted on the election bureau’s page at luzernecounty.org.

Voter registration

This is the largest category, with Casey’s attorneys objecting to the board’s denial of approximately 530 provisional ballots from voters identified as not registered, according to the election bureau’s online list.

Representing Casey’s campaign, Attorney Neil O’Donnell has cited a concern with the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system that tracks voter registrations.

“This isn’t a Luzerne County problem. This is a SURE system problem,” O’Donnell had said. “There’s something wrong with the system, and we should get to the bottom of it.”

In addition to those not registered, Casey’s campaign is contesting the board’s rejection of ballots from:

• 69 voters whose registrations were cancelled, including those with inactive status because they were not shown as casting ballots in two federal elections.

• 28 voters residing outside the county and not registered

• 117 voters registered outside the county

Judge of elections

McCormick’s campaign is contesting the board’s acceptance of approximately 24 provisional ballots without a signature from the judge of elections on the outer return envelope.

The election board had accepted these based on Pennsylvania Department of State guidance indicating ballots should not be rejected due to a missing judge of elections signature.

Representing McCormick’s campaign, Attorney Nick Barry had objected and referenced state law spelling out the signature requirement.

Molino told Barry he is “very cognizant” of the wording of the law but must provide the election board with all options, including the state guidance.

Missing voter signature, secrecy envelopes

Provisional voters are required to sign the outer return envelope in two spots and first place their ballot inside an inner privacy envelope.

Casey’s campaign is challenging the board’s denial of 179 provisional ballots with missing voter signatures and 41 without secrecy envelopes.

O’Donnell had said these challenges would cite “operator error” in failing to provide instruction to the voters. He said voters should not be penalized if they did not receive clear instruction on how to properly complete their provisional ballot at the polls.

Among the others challenged: eight with no outer return envelope, two with envelope deficiencies, one with a voter-identifying mark on the ballot, four with identification not verified and three missing both a secrecy envelope and judge-of-elections signature.

Hearing process

Molino said he has been in communication with attorneys from both sides about the plan to tackle challenges by category.

Each side will have an opportunity to make broad legal arguments about the issues involved under each topic and argue why they believe the ballots should or should not count, he said.

Molino expects the board will then seek his opinion before voting.

The board will have the option to uphold or alter its decision based on the arguments and any testimony presented at the hearing.

Both campaigns will have the right to appeal the board’s final decision to the county Court of Common Pleas within two days, or by the end of business Thursday, he said.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, the election bureau is scheduled to start logic and accuracy testing of equipment that will be used for the U.S. Senator recount. This will occur in the same room as the hearing.

The recount will commence at 11 a.m. Wednesday, also in the same room.