23 votes cast at Chartiers precinct might not count due to poll book issue
Nearly two dozen votes cast by people using emergency special ballots at a Chartiers Township polling place Tuesday morning may not be counted after the judge of elections there failed to sign in the voters when the electronic poll book failed.
The 23 votes cast during a brief period of time at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in the Meadowlands are now under review by a Washington County judge since none of the voters was instructed to sign the back-up paper ledger, meaning there is no identifiable information proving they voted.
The Washington County Elections Office staff sent a worker to the Chartiers-3 precinct about 10 a.m. Tuesday, about an hour after the electronic poll book malfunctioned, leading to a situation in which the precinct’s judge of elections simply gave the emergency special ballots to people coming through the line without taking their information. Such ballots are to be used when the electronic poll book fails, but protocol requires voters to sign into the paper ledger so their registration can be confirmed.
A hearing was held before Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Traci McDonald shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday in which she issued a court order removing Chartiers-3 Judge of Election Andrew Cleary from the precinct and replacing him with another judge of elections.
Elections staff and other officials then began trying to locate the 23 voters – despite having no information about their identities – asking them to return to the precinct to vote in person. The precinct at Chartiers-3 was kept open until 10 p.m. Tuesday — two hours after the polls closed in Pennsylvania — to give people a better chance to return to the polling place.
Another hearing will be held before McDonald on Wednesday to determine whether people who were unable to return to the precinct should still have their vote counted.
But the short deadline left little time people to return, making it nearly impossible for some to do so.
Brendan Mangus, 48, of Chartiers Township, said he had serious concerns about how the judge of elections was handling the situation after the electronic poll book malfunctioned, and immediately wondered whether he and other people who voted using the emergency special ballot would have their votes counted.
He contacted the Observer-Reporter earlier in the day notifying the newspaper of the issue. But when contacted again by a reporter Tuesday night with an update to the situation, he was already in Pittsburgh to watch the Penguins game with no possible way to return to Chartiers Township to vote at the precinct.
“This is how you disenfranchise people with the power of their vote,” Mangus said Tuesday night. “When things are mishandled and things aren’t done the right way.”
Mangus, who hasn’t missed voting in an election since he turned 18 in 1996, brought his 10-year-old son with him to the polls so he could watch his father participate in the election. But Mangus said Tuesday’s situation will instead bring an “erosion of trust” for how elections are handled.
“All these rules are in place, and I followed what they asked me to do and now my vote isn’t going to count,” Mangus said. “It doesn’t sound like there’s much I can do at this point.”
He added people suggested he vote early with a mail-in or use the “on-demand” option by going to the elections office and requesting one, but he thought in-person voting would be safer. Now he is upset with how the judge of elections at the precinct handled the situation by not following the protocol, which could lead to Mangus and 22 other voters being disenfranchised.
“You have one job to do. You are there to administer an election … and it was mishandled,” Mangus said. “Is it that hard to get it right? It’s a massive disappointment and letdown.”
It was not immediately known when the hearing would be held Wednesday or whether anyone who thinks they might have been one of the 23 affected would be able to provide proof they voted.