Judge orders machine recounts in 4 Westmoreland voting precincts
Nov. 30—A Westmoreland County judge on Tuesday ordered machine recounts of election results from four voting precincts, but in doing so rejected requests to review by hand each ballot cast this month in the race for governor and U.S. senator.
Voters in five of the the county's 307 voting precincts filed court documents alleging fraud and other misconduct related to the Nov. 8 election. It was part of a statewide effort to challenge the results that saw state Sen. Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz, both Republicans, lose their races for governor and U.S. senator, respectively.
Common Pleas Court Judge Harry Smail Jr. said state law and a Commonwealth Court ruling from this year prohibited the authorization of hand recounts without evidence of fraud or other potential errors.
Lawsuits asking for recounts were filed by voters in Lower Burrell, Hempfield, Ligonier Borough, Loyalhanna and Salem precincts, each alleging fraud. No evidence of impropriety was produced when they were questioned by the judge during Tuesday's hearing.
Smail refused to allow testimony based on unverified accounts relayed by third parties.
The county commissioners, acting as Westmoreland's election board, on Monday certified results from 302 of the county's 307 voting precincts.
The county opposed the hand recount requests.
County Solicitor Melissa Guiddy said digital scanner equipment not used on Election Day will be used for the recount on Monday at the courthouse.
The judge ordered the county election bureau to report the recount findings by next Wednesday.
The lawsuits filed in Westmoreland mirrored complaints made by voters throughout Pennsylvania over the past two weeks in which hand recounts were requested. Fees of $50 per precinct were paid as part of the recount requests.
Carrie Pizer of Loyalhanna, one of the voters seeking recounts, told the judge the effort was in response to unverified accounts that claimed Westmoreland's touch-screen voting machines incorrectly registered votes for Democratic candidates.
Pizer confirmed she did not witness any malfunctions.
"I don't consider myself an election denier. I consider myself an election verifier," Pizer told the judge. "I don't feel confident in the results."
Susanna DeJeet of Salem claimed she had received several reports from voters who claimed the county's voting machines incorrectly registered votes.
"The persons who claimed their votes were flipped were threatened and don't want their names to be made public. I believe what they said, but I cannot use their names," DeJeet said before she withdrew her recount request.
County election officials have denied equipment malfunction allegations. Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey said technicians were sent to six polling locations on Election Day to recalibrate machines, but they found no cases where votes were improperly recorded or "flipped" to other candidates.
He said two audits of results found no major discrepancies with the county's reported vote totals.
McCloskey said nearly 2,300 ballots from six voting precincts, in Allegheny Township, Arnold, Donegal, Greensburg, Irwin and Monessen, were tallied again on Nov. 22. Officials determined that the vote totals that were initially reported were correct.
"All of our numbers matched up," McCloskey said.
A second review conducted the same day as part of a required statewide audit recounted 360 mail-in ballots cast by voters in one Murrysville precinct. That audit found one vote had to be subtracted from the total for Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.
McCloskey said that likely was the result of a tabulation error in which one ballot was counted in the wrong precinct.
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich by email at rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .
