LAWRENCE COUNTY Election board explore ways to avoid balloting foul-ups

Write-in votes for the primary election will be counted Thursday and Friday.
By VIRGINIA ROSS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County elections officials plan to explore ways they can avoid election night glitches like the one that led to a recount of some 700 ballots from the May 17 primary.
Dan Vogler, elections board chairman, said he would like to see the board begin to "make a system that works pretty well work even better."
Elections board members agreed at a special session Tuesday to begin discussing their options this summer. "That way we will allow ourselves enough time to iron out as many snags as possible before November's general election," Vogler said.
Neshannock Township
The county had to recount the ballots in an election box from Neshannock Township's 7th precinct after it was discovered that several hundred of the ballots in the box had been overlooked during the primary.
Officials have explained that the missing votes were discovered when a discrepancy appeared between the number of ballots counted and the number of votes recorded.
Vogler said he would like to see workers run the voter machines to verify the number of ballots that have gone through the machines, so that discrepancies are discovered immediately.
Several close races, including the county sheriff's post and several openings on the Neshannock Township school board and the board of supervisors, remained undecided until the entire box of ballots was recounted Monday.
Lessons learned
"I think, for the most part, everything by and large worked very well," Vogler said. "But I think we need to review our procedures and do a lesson-learned exercise to avoid what happened with Neshannock."
The elections board also reported that the write-in votes will be counted at 10 a.m. Thursday and Friday. The elections return board will announce the first certification results of the primary once the write-in votes are tabulated.
"We just want to remind everyone that results we have now are preliminary," Vogler said. "And there were some pretty close races. Final results can change things. The numbers can change. Remember, we're not done yet."
After the primary, Perry Quahliero was leading the race for the Democratic nomination for county sheriff by nine votes. After Monday's count, he had six more votes than his opponent, Charles H. Adamo.