LAWRENCE CO. Special election looms

The elections director contends no one could have tampered with the ballots.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A visiting judge will decide if Lawrence County must have a special election for the county treasurer's position. Judge Carson Brown of Clinton County, Pa., presided over a five-hour hearing Thursday on Susan Bongivengo's request for a new election. Bongivengo lost the Democratic nomination for treasurer in the primary election to incumbent Gary Felasco. Felasco also was named the Republican write-in winner. But Bongivengo contends there were problems with the vote tally on the Republican ballot.
She paid to have Republican write-in ballots in three precincts recounted and gained 24 votes not previously recorded by election workers. Sixteen votes now separate her from Felasco for the Republican nomination.
Earlier this week, Bongivengo offered to withdraw her petition for a new election if the county election board would agree to recount 26 ballot boxes. The offer was rejected on the advice of county Solicitor John Hodge.
The boxes, along with the three Bongivengo already had recounted, were part of an election-night equipment malfunction. The ballots were tallied a second time when initial election totals showed no Democratic voters in any of those districts.
Judge J. Craig Cox of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court testified Thursday that he and Hodge decided to recount those ballots on election night.
Discrepancies
Bongivengo's petition for a new election contends that elections officials have told her the discrepancy in the Republican write-in ballots could have occurred when those 29 boxes were being gathered for the recount. Some were taken away from workers recording write-in votes and possibly not tallied again.
There also were discrepancies in the total number of ballots in another box, said Bongivengo's attorney, her son John Bongivengo.
John Bongivengo pointed out that on election night Wilmington Township's second district had 227 ballots, but a recount requested by his mother in August only showed 224 ballots in the box.
Other problems were discovered when the county did a "2 percent test," said Marlene Gabriel, elections director, under cross-examination.
A second tally of three random ballot boxes to test the accuracy of the election uncovered a problem with North Beaver Township's District 1, she said.
Bongivengo initially had 57 Democratic votes and Felasco 52. But the test showed that Felasco had 75 Democratic votes and Bongivengo had 68.
Possible errors
Gabriel said it was machine operator error.
Denise Palkovich, who worked election night putting ballots in the tallying machines, testified damp ballots were sticking together causing her machine to malfunction throughout the night.
On cross-examination by Felasco's attorney, Ed Leymarie, Gabriel said there was no possible way someone could tamper with the ballots.
"If anyone did anything on election night, they would have to be a magician," she said. "Everything is done in the presence of watchers."
Judge Brown is expected to issue a written decision after attorneys file court briefs.
cioffi@vindy.com