Dec 6, 2018 3 min read

A voting machine technician assigned to Carroll Township testified in Washington County Court Wednesday that he checked a touchscreen device on Election Day and found no malfunction.

Technician Jonathan Lee Whaley II’s testimony came after voter Dennis Butler told Judge Gary Gilman he pressed candidate Steve Toprani’s name for state representative but saw the voting machine display an “X” for incumbent State Rep. Bud Cook.

Butler, of Grant Road, Monongahela, was voting at the Carroll Township municipal building with his wife. Although he said he saw the screen display a vote for Cook, he ultimately cast his ballot for Toprani, then reported his interaction with the machine to the judge of elections, who diverted others from using it.

Assistant Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said she was not aware of Butler’s allegations until her office received a copy of Toprani’s court petition. She attributed Butler’s voting anomaly to human error.

County Elections Director Larry Spahr, during more than three hours of testimony from several witnesses, said he has seen the Diebold touchscreen machines act the way Butler described, but only “an infinitesimal number of times.”

Toprani, a Democrat from Monongahela who trails Republican Cook by 11 votes out of nearly 20,000 cast, presented a multipronged case in an attempt to unseat the incumbent. Vote totals from both Washington and Fayette counties show Cook with 9,945 and Toprani with 9,934.

Cook, not in court Wednesday, was represented by attorney Russell Giancola, who asked the judge to throw out Toprani’s petition, saying it had been filed too late, it lacked legal requirements for an election challenge and was in the wrong venue.

Attorney Joseph Dalfonso, representing Toprani, countered that the law grants broad latitude to county judges considering election-related matters.

The Democrat, who is a former Washington County district attorney, asked Gilman to order the elections office to count 30 absentee ballots that arrived too late to be counted.

Pennsylvania has the earliest deadline among 50 states to return absentee ballots, which are due the Friday before an election.

Giancola countered that voters could have requested absentee ballots for the Nov. 6 general election on Sept. 17, giving them plenty of time to return them by the Nov. 2 deadline.

Of the 30 late-arriving absentee ballots, Ostrander testified 24 arrived on Monday, Nov. 5, with others delivered to the elections office between Nov. 6 and 13.

The ballots were postmarked between Oct. 30 and Nov. 6.

Military and overseas civilian absentee ballots have greater leeway. They are to be counted if they arrive at county elections offices a week after Election Day as long as they bear a prior postmark.

Dalfonso said this has created two classes of voters, but Giancola argued that Toprani, while asserting that changes in the postal delivery system has disenfranchised voters, he had presented no evidence.

County Solicitor J. Lynn DeHaven told the judge that the Washington County elections office had fulfilled its mission of running a fair election in which every valid ballot is counted.

Cook, a West Pike Run Township resident, is seeking a second, two-year term.

Gilman took the matter under advisement but he said before adjourning court that he expects to make a decision soon.