Federal committee probes Luzerne County ballot shortage issue

The Republican chairman and ranking Democrat of the U.S. House Administration Committee agreed Tuesday that a paper ballot shortage in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on Election Day 2022 should have never happened, and someone needs to answer questions about the "disaster," as some witnesses called it.

But key county officials turned down the committee's invitation to testify at the hearing, reportedly at the advice of a county solicitor. This frustrated GOP committee members, including one, U.S. Rep. H. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, who said the committee should subpoena the officials to compel their testimony.

"Citizens of Luzerne County deserve to be heard," committee Chairman U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-WI, said in his opening remarks. "They have the right to vote. They need answers from those who are elected to serve them."

Steil then chided officials not only from Luzerne County but also the Pennsylvania Department of State for not appearing before the panel.

"I hope those officials who refused to come and testify today are watching to hear from voters in Luzerne County whose votes were suppressed due to their negligence," he said.

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Ongoing investigation

Days after the election, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce launched an investigation into the ballot paper shortage at the request of the county's Board of Elections and Registrations.

Since then, county officials — including Acting Deputy Election Director Beth Gilbert, Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams, and Luzerne County Council Chairwoman Kendra Radle — have not explained what went wrong on Election Day and the weeks leading up to it, or what they plan to do differently when the state holds its primary on May 16, citing the D.A.'s ongoing inquiry.

Instead, committee members on Tuesday heard statements from Luzerne County voters, a GOP Congressional candidate, a Republican National Committee attorney, the commissioner of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the head of a progressive political education and advocacy group that operates in northeastern Pennsylvania.

What happened

Not long after polls opened on Nov. 8, 2022, several voting precincts in Luzerne County began running out of paper ballots as voters headed to the polls to decide races for U.S. Senate and House, the Pennsylvania House and Senate, as well as governor.

The paper shortage impacted a third of the county's precincts. It led to some precincts to close for hours — others remained closed for the remainder of the day. A judge ordered polls to stay open until 10 p.m., two additional hours after they were supposed to close.

Voters were given provisional ballots to vote on. Election officials also bought regular copy paper to print emergency ballots, not the paper stock specified by the manufacturer of the ballot tabulating machines used by the county.

Donald Palmer, commissioner of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, noted that his agency warned elections officials across the country in early 2022 about the potential for paper supply chain issues and urged them to order adequate supplies before a certain date.

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Palmer said Luzerne County officials should have ordered an adequate stock of paper to carry out the election, or, at the least, had a backup plan in place to conduct the election if such a shortage occurred.

"They either did not order, or ordered not enough, ballot stock," Palmer said. "They did not anticipate the turnout on Election Day."

"Turnout? At 7:30 a.m.?" said U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-PA, asked, citing how some precincts ran out of ballot paper shortly after the polls opened.

Palmer said the county may have also had a supply of "inappropriate ballot stock" — paper that was not designed for tabulating machines.

But throughout the hearing, committee members and witnesses expressed frustration for the lack of answers coming from county officials.

"We can't even find out who ordered the paper," said Republican Jim Bognet, who lost his bid for the state's 8th Congressional District seat against incumbent Democrat Rep. Matt Cartwright.

Bognet said the election was the result of "gross incompetence" and "brought national shame" to the county, which makes up a "vast majority" of his congressional district. Bognet said he was "disproportionately" impacted by the ballot paper shortage because Republicans vote in larger numbers on Election Day while Democrats have voted by mail by larger margins since the introduction of no-excuse mail-in voting in 2020.

Bognet said some voters were asked to vote by provisional ballot but did not feel comfortable doing so. Others left their polling precincts in disgust, he said. And some were told they would be called at a time when they could return to vote. He also testified that election workers could not get county officials to answer the phone at the Board of Elections.

Bognet filed a lawsuit against Luzerne County two weeks after the election.

During his testimony, Bognet suggested that county officials were trying to cover up what happened by not speaking publicly about the election.

"Four-and-a-half months, no answers, zero," he said.

Other problems occurred

One voter said, in a pre-recorded video statement, that he went to the East End Fire Company in Hazleton to vote shortly after 8 p.m., having learned that a judge had extended voting in the county but was turned away by an election worker who decided to close the precinct despite the order.

The voter, who has voted at the same polling place since 1966, said his voting precinct is majority Republican.

Meuser talked about other issues that contributed to "the chaos," including ballots being left unattended.

Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich, the executive director of Action Together NEPA, a nonprofit progressive group, said there are questions that still remain about what happened on Election Day but noted that Luzerne County has been "plagued" by high turnover and the loss of "institutional memory" in its election office for years.

Over the last four years, the elections office has lacked a permanent director, sometimes for months at a time, including in the months leading up to the midterms.

U.S. Rep. Norma J. Torres, D-CA, said there's more that needs to be done to train and staff elections offices across the country, including in Luzerne County.

"They've been changing clerks and staff the way we change clothes every day," Torres quipped.

'What are we trying to accomplish?'

Ranking minority member, U.S. Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., called what happened in Luzerne County "completely unacceptable" and listed several questions he wants answered.

But Morelle also said that it seemed "logical" that some potential witnesses would decline to testify until the district attorney has completed his investigation and issued a report.

"The resulting report we would expect would answer these sorts of factual questions and would make some recommendations on who's to blame and whether or not criminal charges would be forthcoming as a result of breaking laws with criminal intent," Morelle said in his opening remarks. "Which brings us to the question that is sort of mystifying to us on this side of the aisle: What exactly are we trying to accomplish in today's hearing?"

Morelle noted that no one, including Bognet, had brought an election contest, the formal process for filing an election complaint with the House, following the 2022 midterms.

Morelle added that his Republican colleagues had titled the hearing "Government voter suppression in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania," which more than implied an intentional effort to disenfranchise voters.

He noted that all but one member of the 11-person Luzerne County Council is a Republican.

"It's not exactly a bastion of progressive politics," he said.

Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com or on Twitter at @ETNRink.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: House panel calls for answers, accountability for Luzerne election mess