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Pocono News Section
Recount Process Begins in Lackawanna County
Recount Process Begins in Lackawanna County - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 5:45PM EST
Reported by: Eric Deabill
Wednesday, Nov 18, 2009 @ 05:45pm EST
DICKSON CITY, LACKAWANNA COUNTY -- Election workers were very busy across the region Wednesday. Every county began a recount for state Superior Court Judge. But in Lackawanna County the process is even more tedious. It’s because a coding error was found.
Because of that glitch Lackawanna County is doing two recounts. The first was by machine. It was only 50-percent finished by 5:00 PM but is expected to be finished by the end of the night.
Thursday a manual recount of ten specific races will also be done.
There was a flurry of activity inside the Voter Administration Center Wednesday as all 51,000 ballots cast November 3rd were recounted by machine. Candidates in many close races, like Archbald mayor, came to make sure everything was done properly.
Mayor Ed Fairbrother said, “I think they're doing the right thing by doing a whole recount just to get people's confidence in the election process."
Democrat Carl Ferraro lost the Scott Township Constable's race by 200 votes. He also wanted to insure the election's integrity.
“The numbers, the difference in the races was unusual and we just want to be sure the votes were counted correctly," he said.
The recount comes after a coding glitch cost candidates in two races in Scranton their straight party votes. More than 2,000 voters weren't registered.
Democratic Party Chairman Harry McGrath said, “Everybody makes mistakes. It seems like it was a very limited anomaly as I said before."
Republican Party Chairman Paul Catalano said, “We want to restore confidence in the system so that we can get more people out to vote."
The voting machine company Elections System and Software blamed the glitch on human error. It was not caught during testing.
Chris Evans, the son of one Scranton Council candidate said, “I don't want to hear anything about blame game. I want to know who the specific human was....what the specific error was... and what the physical evidence is."
County Director of Elections Maryann Spellman Young said, “To completely test an election, to test every possibility in voting involves -- in this election -- it would have involved over 10,000 ballots."
Wednesday’s machine tally did not provide any changes in who won any of the races. The manual recount which begins Thursday is expected to take into next week, maybe even past Thanksgiving. | | |
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