Fayette County elections officials agree to recount six precincts
Fayette County elections officials are planning to perform a recount of the Republican primary elections in six precincts that were being challenged in court.
The elections board on Friday notified attorney Greg Teufel, who is representing the petitioners challenging the results of the GOP county commissioners race, that they will conduct the recount beginning at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 21 for the select precincts after previously denying the requests.
The about-face came two days after Senior Judge John Wagner Jr. ordered the elections bureau to turn over copies of ballots in the six precincts that had 鈥渂leed-through鈥� from pen markings, along with the 鈥渃ast vote record鈥� that includes the digital tally of the votes. The deadline to produce the digital tabulation and paper copies was Monday, meaning the decision to conduct a recount negates the need to turn over those documents.
Teufel called it a 鈥渕ajor development鈥� and said he and county elections officials are expecting to file a consent agreement with Wagner for him to formally order the recount.
Teufel said elections officials agreed to recount all in-person and mail-in ballots for the Republican race for commissioner in Connellsville Township, Dunbar Borough, South Connellsville Borough, the third precinct in Georges Township and precincts one and three in Bullskin Township.
鈥淲e鈥檙e very pleased with their willingness to do that,鈥� Teufel said.
The challenges are being pushed by Fayette County Recorder of Deeds Jon Marietta Jr., who ran for county commissioners in the Republican primary on May 16, but finished in third place behind incumbents David Lohr and Scott Dunn. Marietta lost the nomination to Dunn by 121 votes, and he鈥檚 arguing that 鈥渂leed-through鈥� on the paper ballots could have caused counting errors by the precinct scanning equipment.
Teufel said any discrepancies between the election night totals and recount numbers could prompt them to ask for a countywide review of the primary. He also indicated that the process could help alleviate concerns if the vote totals match one another.
鈥淚f it is an identical count, it would be a pretty substantial (sample) size where presumably where there are a lot of ballots with bleed-through. That would be significantly reassuring that the (bleed-through) problem didn鈥檛 cause scanning errors in other precincts,鈥� Teufel said.
County elections officials told Wagner at last week鈥檚 hearing that bleed-through on ballots is not unusual, and the Dominion scanning machines are equipped to handle such issues. Elections officials previously said copies of paper ballots and the cast vote record were considered 鈥渃ontents of the ballot box,鈥� which Pennsylvania鈥檚 elections code states should not be made public.
鈥淭he board was very uncomfortable with that directive,鈥� Elections Bureau solicitor Sheryl Heid said.
Heid said she spoke to elections board members Robert Lesnick, Mark Rowan and John Kopas, who indicated they would agree to a recount due to the judge鈥檚 decision. No meeting was held after Wagner鈥檚 ruling, raising questions about the board鈥檚 adherence to the state鈥檚 Sunshine Law in discussing the issue, but Heid said they plan to hold an emergency meeting some time this week to formally vote on a recount.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have a formal meeting of any type, but they felt it was imperative to act quickly and to work to reassure the voters that the machines act properly, which is what Judge Wagner had been suggesting from the bench,鈥� she said.
A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 22 for Wagner to hear testimony from the petition challengers and determine whether there was a need for a recount in their precincts. That hearing could be canceled depending on how the recount process unfolds.
Teufel said he expects the recount to a take one day, while Elections Bureau Director MaryBeth Kuznik indicated last week that the process could take two days.
鈥淭he county has decided to be cooperative with the recount, which we greatly appreciative,鈥� Teufel said.
The number of in-person and mail-in votes in the six precincts being challenged account for fewer than 2,000 votes out of the 11,883 voters who cast their ballots in the Republican Party primary.