Nearly a week after Conor Lamb declared victory in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, election officials are still counting provisional ballots.
Military and overseas ballots received Tuesday of this week are still eligible to be counted, and in a contest separated by 600 votes, every ballot counts.
Even if Republican Rick Saccone were to win all of the outstanding overseas and absentee ballots he would come up short, but the GOP isn’t conceding. Instead, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania is asking for an investigation into what it calls voting irregularities including reports of machine errors, confusion over polling places and a dispute over whether a GOP attorney could observe polling.
“We received the letter on Friday and are reviewing it,” said Wanda Murren, communications director at the Pennsylvania Department of State. “We have full confidence in county and local election officials to administer a fair and effective election. Under the state election code, election irregularities would be investigated at the county level, either by the county election board or the district attorney. The Department, on the other hand, is charged with specific and enumerated duties under the election code, and will undertake its duties in accordance with the law. As always, the Department will be ready to offer guidance to the counties if they request it.”
She went on to add: “I’d like to address one particular point in the letter because it specifically deals with the Department of State’s voter information website, votesPA.com. It is absolutely not true that the polling place locator on votesPA.com was giving out incorrect polling place information. A voter’s polling place does not change, whether we are talking about Tuesday’s special election or any other election.” She said that the poll locator does not indicate what district a voter is in. “We believe some people were confused on the day of the special election by the simple fact that, when they used our system to inquire about their polling place, the system gave them the location. Then they thought they were eligible to vote Tuesday. But the fact is, on any day of the year, registered voters may check their polling place on our website. This information is always available to registered voters.”
Mr. Saccone was expected to have a big edge in the 18th District, which Republican President Donald Trump carried by 20 percentage points.
Allegheny County election officials on Monday morning finished reconciling absentee ballots. Then they scanned additional absentee ballots identified during their morning session, said county spokeswoman Amie Downs, and reconciled provisional ballots against machine counters and poll-book records.
Ms. Downs said late afternoon Monday that the canvassing of the machines had been completed. “As a result, an additional 67 votes are being added to the overall vote count,” she said. One Scott Township precinct did not put results from all machines on one personalized electronic ballot, and so the results were not included in the online tabulation. The votes in that precinct were 51 for Mr. Lamb, 14 for Mr. Saccone and 2 for Mr. Miller.
One additional absentee ballot vote from Mt. Lebanon was also added.
County officials will meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to review and count overseas ballots, Ms. Downs said. There were 35 of those as of Monday. Observers may challenge those ballots.
The hearings on the provisional ballots that were challenged will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the Elections Division. Depending on the results of those hearings, additional votes may be added to the count.
Washington County election officials are awaiting the arrival of the last military and overseas ballots, too. Eleven of 24 requested remain outstanding, said county elections director Larry Spahr. He received two military ballots in Monday’s mail including one that cannot be counted because it was postmarked after the March 12 deadline.
Greene County, where Mr. Saccone leads 2,800 to 2,022, has no outstanding military or overseas ballots but is awaiting one from a “federally registered” voter, a rarely used designation for citizens who move overseas and are unsure if they will return to the U.S., said Amie Nehls of the County Board of Elections.
Westmoreland County has 22 military and overseas ballots, which officials expect to count Tuesday.
Washington Bureau Chief Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com; 703-996-9292 or on Twitter @pgPoliTweets.
First Published: March 19, 2018, 5:35 p.m.
Updated: March 19, 2018, 8:44 p.m.
