Luzerne County Senators Seek Answers on Late Mailing of Special Election Ballots

HARRISBURG – A group of state Senators representing Luzerne County are searching for an explanation why mail-in ballots were delayed in being sent to 300 voters in Tuesday’s special election to fill a vacant seat in the House of Representatives.

A recent Times Leader news article indicated that a total of 300 voters’ mail-in ballot information was not correctly uploaded by the Department of State so that they could be sent to the ballot vendor for printing and mailing to the voter, creating a significant delay in these voters receiving their ballots. Luzerne County election officials are seeking court approval to accept the mail-in ballots after Tuesday’s special election and attributed the delay to a technical issue with the Department of State.

Senators Lisa Baker (R-20), John Yudichak (R-14), David G. Argall (R-29) and John Gordner (R-27) issued a joint statement today seeking clarification on the source of the error:

“Effective election processes are essential to conducting a successful election, and to voter confidence in election results. Errors such as those reported within the Times Leader article undermine voters’ faith in our elections, and could prevent voters’ legitimate exercise of their right to vote. With these important considerations at stake, we and the public must understand how this could have occurred.

“Specifically, we are requesting additional information from election officials on the source and nature of the error, whether the requests were submitted to the Department of State in a timely manner, how the mistake is being corrected so the affected individuals can still exercise their right to vote, and what actions are being taken to prevent this from happening in the future.” 

CONTACT: Jason Thompson

 

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