Pennsylvania County Votes For DA To Investigate Voting Machine Failing To Display Republican Ballots

After voting machines failed to show Republican votes during a primary election last week, a Pennsylvania county decided on Tuesday to have a leading prosecutor look into the incident further.

According to the Times Leader, Luzerne County’s 11-member council voted to request the district attorney’s office to investigate a May 18 dispute in which all votes seemed to be Democratic on a series of Dominion Voting Systems machines, a corporation tarnished by suspicious election fraud claims in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.

Linda McClosky Houck, one of the members, was not present when the vote was held.

When many voters left polling sites furious, Councilman Walter Griffith, who supported the measure, said that many GOP and independent voters were “disenfranchised and concerned about the integrity of the election process.”

According to the local news site, the resolution asks the district attorney to investigate Dominion’s policies and processes, as well as the election board’s responsibilities in supervising and maintaining election equipment security.

A motion to remove County Manager David Pedri was introduced, but it was not voted on.

District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said that his office is open to investigate any alleged illegal activity.

“Without election integrity, the public cannot have faith in the rest of our democratic process,” he stated.

On May 18, all Luzerne County voters, regardless of party affiliation, saw a ballot on the first screen that was exclusively labeled for the Democratic primary, causing confusion. Even though they seemed to be Democratic on the screen, ballots for GOP voters would print as Republican. Voters were given the option of filing a provisional or emergency ballot by the electoral authorities.

During a two-hour special meeting on Monday, Nicole Nollette, Dominion’s executive vice president of operations, blamed the event on “human error” contradicting County Director of Elections Bob Morgan, who indicated last week that a “coding error” was to blame.

“Dominion deeply regrets the confusion this error caused,” Nollette said.

According to a local outlet, the Board of Elections in Luzerne County, based in northeast Pennsylvania, said that every vote was tallied accurately. Republicans, in particular, have expressed worries about the election’s integrity.

Morgan claimed that any issues arising from the primary election were unintentional.

“Nobody did that intentionally. The moment we found out what the impact was, we immediately sought to give advice to the public, and it is our desire to never have that happen again.” Morgan said.

Luzerne officials ran into another issue earlier this week when the WBRE 28/WYOU 22 Eyewitness News I-Team discovered unattended voting machines in a public hallway within the Terrace Plaza mall.

Voters immediately voiced concerns about machine errors, expressing their distrust.

“I don’t think they should be in the middle of the mall area. I told them where the room is over there to keep them secure. But we watch them,” mall manager, Laura Gruene told PA Homepage.

Morgan believes the voting machines should not have been placed in such a public area, but he also acknowledges that recovering 900 devices around the county may take several days.