Anomalies in this week’s election in Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania, where many ballots could not be scanned, have raised new concerns about the integrity of the election.
Most of these unscannable ballots came from Republican voters. Republican Rep. Matthew Dowling told, “What we know at this point is that (the uncounted ballots) are missing the bar codes that paper ballots are supposed to have when they’re scanned.”
George Rattay, chairman of the Fayette County Democratic Party, also said at a press conference Tuesday night that they went to the county elections office and found it was a bar code issue. He told, “Most of them are Republican ballots.”
A spokesman for the county’s elections office declined to comment on the matter, citing an ongoing investigation. Republican county officials helped obtain a judicial order that called for a recount of all unscanned ballots.
Fayette County conducted the recount Thursday. The county said in a statement that the Elections Division has identified and is addressing a “printing issue” with some primary ballots that is affecting all parties. Alternative solutions have been developed and are being implemented. “Election officials will ensure that every vote is counted.”
State Rep. Dowling, along with Ryan Warner and state Sen. Pat Stefano, have issued a right-to-know request seeking records involving ballot and voting machine testing as well as financial records (including contracts) related to the printing of ballots and reports of ballot mishaps.
Dowling told, “We do want to provide transparency and let our voters know how this error occurred.” He added that the county has not yet explained why bar codes were missing from certain ballots.
The issue has caused some voters to have even less confidence in the integrity of the election. Voters in some precincts have said they are not willing to vote anymore.
Fayette County uses Dominion voting system machines. In the May 18 election, Luzerne County also had problems with its Dominion machines, which were blamed on a “ballot screen error.
A Dominion spokesperson also cited a statement from Fayette County regarding the problems in the election, blaming them on a printing problem.
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