A Pennsylvania county faulted a “coding error” this week after Republican and nonpartisan voters were dismayed to see only Democratic ballots available as they tried to participate in a slew of local elections.
Luzerne County voters were issued a ballot that only indicated it was for the Democratic primary, regardless of their indicated party affiliation. Many Tuesday voters left their polling places agitated, though Director of Elections Bob Morgan said the error was not the fault of the local government, but rather the blame lied with Dominion Voting Systems, a company marred by dubious election fraud claims in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
“We gave a final product to Dominion,” Morgan told PA Homepage. “There is no evidence of any of this problem on the mail-in ballots, which were produced from that file. We’re still working with Dominion to get an explanation as to how this coding error occurred. They were as surprised about it as we were.”
VOTING MACHINES ACROSS PENNSYLVANIA COUNTY NOT ACCEPTING REPUBLICAN BALLOTS IN LOCAL RACES: REPORT
Morgan indicated that ballots would show as Republican when printed, even though they appeared to be Democratic on the screen. The election authority granted GOP voters the ability to file a provisional or emergency ballot if they couldn’t make it back to the polls by 8 p.m.
“We’re doing signs, we’ve contacted each of the judges of elections,” he said. “We’ve asked them to place a sign at their voting place. We’re giving Republican voters the opportunity to vote by provisional or emergency ballot if they choose.”
Dominion issued a statement to the outlet in which it claimed a “ballot screen error” was present.
“Luzerne County’s election director has confirmed that there is a ballot screen error that is confined to the header on the viewing screen of the machine, and that all ballots are printing correctly with the Republican header and the Republican primary election races,” the company wrote. “As the county has reassured the voting public, all ballots will be correctly counted. We regret any confusion this has caused.”
Dominion, which has rejected allegations of being involved in 2020 election fraud and filed multiple defamation lawsuit against people making those claims, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner about the Luzerne County situation.
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A similar issue occurred in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on the same day, according to KDKA, a local CBS affiliate, which did not which company made the machines. Multiple precincts were having difficulty scanning bar codes on all ballots, and several voters said their Republican ballots were not accepted. Chris Varney, an elections judge, said the issue was initially believed to be affecting all ballots, but officials later determined the problem only affected Republican ballots.
