Several hundred test ballots found in Luzerne County’s unofficial results due to a Dominion Voting Systems error

Several hundred test ballots were included in Luzerne County’s unofficial online election results due to a Dominion Voting Systems error, county Election Director Emily Cook said Monday.

All selections from the test ballots have been voided, and the updated unofficial elections results reflect all deletions, Cook said.

The test ballots were from multiple voting precincts and not concentrated in one place, she said.

The new unofficial Nov. 4 general election results update is posted at luzernecounty.org. It indicates 78,479 ballots were cast, which is a reduction of 423 compared to the last update on Nov. 6.

According to Cook:

During post-election adjudication of write-in votes, the county found three test batches from one of the four central scanners/tabulators had been included in the unofficial results.

Dominion, the county’s outgoing voting equipment supplier, handles mandatory “logic and accuracy” testing of all equipment before elections, including the four central scanners/tabulators used to process mail ballots.

Once this pre-election testing is completed, Dominion representatives are supposed to clear all test ballot results from the scanners/tabulators so the processing count starts fresh on Election Day, which did not occur for one of the central scanners/tabulators, she said.

Even if the county had failed to detect the error while processing write-in votes, Cook said she is confident the problem would have been found during the final reconciliation. During reconciliation, the county Election Board must ensure the total number of ballots processed matches the voter count before results are certified.

Cook said the test ballots have a “specific pattern” that made them “very easy to identify.”

She found three test batches and extracted them from the results.

“It was just one group scanned on one tabulator,” she said.

Cook said she reviewed every other batch of mail ballots scanned to date and verified no other test ballots were included in the results.

She reported the problem to Dominion and said the county Election Board and administration are aware of the issue.

Dominion did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the matter.

The clearing of scanners/tabulators won’t be a problem in future elections, Cook said, because the county will be completing logic and accuracy testing in-house instead of relying on an outside vendor as part if its leasing of new voting equipment from Hart InterCivic.

County Council had unanimously voted in September to approve the election bureau’s recommendation to lease voting equipment from Hart InterCivic at $574,000 annually for five years, which includes equipment, software, maintenance, and support services. New voting equipment was pursued because the five-year maintenance and support contract with Dominion expires at the end of the year, officials said.

Write-in votes

Monday’s online update also include breakdowns of write-in vote tallies in races that had no candidates appearing on the ballot.

County workers spent five days under county Election Board supervision reviewing more than 33,000 ballots that had been flagged, primarily due to write-in selections on both mail ballots and the ballot marking devices at polling places, Cook said.

As always, the process was slowed by numerous silly write-in names, such as famous people and cartoon characters.

“We have to look at all of those,” Cook said.

In other cases, voters picked fewer or more than the allowable number of candidates or made “extraneous marks.” For example, at least two ballots had to be rejected because the voters signed them.

The updated online results include breakdowns of write-in winners in races that had no candidates appearing on the ballot.

A public process to break ties in write-in races will be held at noon on Friday on the third floor (courtroom A) of the Penn Place Building, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre.

Aside from a small number of scattered ballots, the results posted Monday capture the lion’s share of results accepted during the adjudication.

The volunteer, five-citizen Election Board is scheduled to certify the election results at 10 a.m. Monday in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Pittston referendum

Based on the updated results, Pittston’s general election ballot question was defeated by two votes, with 712 against the referendum and 710 for it.

The question asked city voters if they want to change the city charter to make the elected treasurer/tax collector position an appointed department director when the elected term expires at the end of 2027. If a majority of voters approved the referendum, the qualifications, powers, and duties of the director position would be “adjusted to correspond with a position held by a city employee,” an accompanying explanation said.