Errors discount election more
Results for Luzerne County?s primary race down by 10 percent from unofficial count.
By MICHAEL P. BUFFER mbuffer@leader.net

Luzerne County?s official count of last week?s primary election returns has erased more than 10 percent off the ballots cast total from the initial unofficial tally.

Officials say extra votes were counted because of tabulation errors, and some candidates? vote totals are hundreds of votes less than totals from the unofficial count, which was conducted after the polls closed on election night, May 16.

According to the unofficial tally, 56,952 ballots were cast, 5,926 more than the official total of 51,026 ballots cast.

?Tuesday night?s vote count has to be discounted 100 percent. The priority is for speed,? said political consultant Bob Caruso, who watched Friday?s official vote count, which lasted more than 14 hours in the county courthouse.

?I still don?t know what happened on Friday. My brain is still mush.?

The tabulation errors changed the outcome in only one contest ? the Republican primary for the 118th state House District.

The vote total for Arthur Bobbouine, Luzerne County chief deputy sheriff, ped from 856 to 807, which put him behind Maureen Tatu, a Chestnuthill Township in Monroe County. Her vote total also ped, but only from 836 to 818.

?It just doesn?t make any sense,? said Bobbouine, who is planning to challenge the new totals and wants a manual recount of paper ballots counted in Luzerne County.

The 118th District included parts of Monroe and Luzerne counties. Bobbouine said the Monroe County totals in the race haven?t changed.

The tabulations errors in Luzerne County came about because the election machine vender, Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software, didn?t reset a counter on a machine that scanned paper ballots, officials said.

The county this year agreed to buy the new machines from ES&S to meet a deadline to use federal money to buy electronic ATM-like voting machines. Each voting precinct in the county was allotted only one electronic machine because of a shortage, so voters could fill out paper ballots if they didn?t want to wait to use the new machines.

According to the official vote count, 45,718 voters cast ballots with the new machines, and 5,308 used paper. The paper total includes about 1,200 absentee ballots, Luzerne County Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza estimated.

The Luzerne County vote total for Mike Carroll, winner of the Democratic primary for the 118th District, ped from 2,668 to 2,377. His overall margin of victory over runner-up James ?Red? O?Brien ped from 827 to 809.

In the Democratic race for the 121st state House District, which includes Wilkes-Barre and four other Luzerne County municipalities, the vote total for primary winner Eddie Day Pashinski ped from 2,767 to 2,623. But Pashinski?s margin of victory over runner-up Brian O?Donnell increased from 264 to 329.

The Luzerne County vote total for Lisa Baker, who easily won the Republican race for the 20th state Senate District, ped from 5,785 to 4,428. The Luzerne County vote totals of her four opponents also ped.

The 20th District includes parts of Luzerne, Monroe and Susquehanna counties and all of Pike, Wayne and Wyoming counties.

The Luzerne County Board of Elections plans to meet this week to certify the official election results.

Michael P. Buffer, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7230.