Cambria County extends voting hours, results may be delayed

• Jordan Wilkie/WITF
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  As the democracy reporter for WITF, I will cover any kind of story that has to do with how we govern ourselves. That will include doing a lot of election coverage about how to access the ballot, how public officials administer elections, the technology used to run and secure elections, and the laws that govern it all.
  
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People fill out mail-in ballots for the 2024 General Election in the United States at a Voters Services satellite office at the Chester County Government Services Center, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in West Chester, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

This story has been updated with additional information from Cambria County. 

A printing error caused Cambria County precinct scanners to be unable to read Election Day ballots. 

The issue caused confusion and long lines, but voting is continuing. 

Cambria County commissioners and voting rights groups are encouraging voters to continue going to the polls. 

The county received new ballots at 1 p.m. and dispersed them to every precinct. They have not received any new complaints of ballots failing to scan, according to County Solicitor Ron Repak. 

A court has extended voting hours in the county until 10 p.m. Any voter in line by then will be able to cast a ballot. 

The problem, diagnosed 

The timing marks on the ballots — black lines around the edge of the ballot — were misprinted. That meant the scanners could not correctly read where the ovals were on the ballot, and therefore could not read voters’ choices. 

Though county commissioners initially stated the problem may have been with the voting machine software, that was not correct. 

The county uses a voting system from Election Systems and Software.

“The issues in Cambria County do not appear to be a machine issue or an issue related to ES&S,” wrote company spokesperson Katina Granger to WITF. “While assisting the county, early indications are that this is a ballot printing issue.” 

The county has not had a problem counting mail-in votes, of which 1,180 have been returned, according to Department of State data. 

Back to normal 

With fresh ballots newly distributed, officials said voting is back to normal. Cambria is a hand-marked paper ballot county. That means voters check in at the registration table, receive their ballot, mark it with a pen, and place it in the scanner located at each precinct. 

For voters this morning and through the early afternoon, elections officials had to use a back-up plan.  

The only change for voters was that instead of submitting their ballots to a scanner, they dropped their ballots in an emergency back-up box. 

Those ballots will be counted later, rather than at the precinct using the scanner. 

Every county is prepared for issues like this. Election systems are resilient, said Kathy Boockvar, the former Pennsylvania Secretary of State from 2019 – 2021. 

“We have the ballot that the voters in Cambria County hand marked,” she said. “And so that’s actually the most important part of the process.”

Hand counting the ballots 

Cambria County has 88,513 registered voters, per data from the Department of State. 

Alex Ashcom, Cambria County’s chief clerk,  said he expects a minimum 40-50% turnout for in-person voting on Election Day. 

It is unclear how many voters cast ballots into the secure emergency boxes as opposed to how many will cast ballots directly into the scanners. 

The Department of State said it is working with Cambria County to resolve the issue. 

“We are working with the County to resolve this technical matter and are committed to ensuring a free, fair, safe, and secure election,” according to department spokesperson Matt Heckel.

The county is keeping the ballots in the emergency boxes segregated from those entered into the scanner. Deputy sheriffs are making the rounds to precincts to pick up those boxes and deliver them to the central elections office, Repak said. 

At each point of the way, the county is following chain-of-custody procedures to track how many ballots are being transported and who has control over them, Repak said. 

“God forbid there is a challenge, we want to make sure that we have all that information ready to go,” he said. 

After the county’s polls close at 10 p.m., Cambria’s elections staff will open the emergency ballot boxes. 

In these situations, counties typically have two options — duplicate votes from the improperly printed ballots onto properly printed ballots, or hand count. 

The county does not have enough properly printed ballots, so it will use hand counting, Repak said. 

To do so, the county will use teams of two elections staff, and up to four, who will be observed by representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties, Repak said. 

“We made sure to contact both parties to ensure that they have observers there to ensure that the process runs as transparent as possible,” he said. 

Hand counting takes longer than uploading results from the precincts. Results will be delayed. 

The time it takes depends on how complicated the ballots are and how many staff are available to count, according to Michael Morley, an elections law professor at Florida State University. 

In 2022, York County did a recount of two races that had a combined 1,824 ballots. It took county staff four hours, according to a report from the elections technology nonprofit Verified Voting. 

Cambria County has eight races on the ballot.

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