Luzerne County votes to certify the 2022 election results

"I could find no reason why it should not be certified as having done. There was no close calls on the race."

• By Sarah Scinto/WVIA and the Associated Press

Luzerne County has certified its election results – two days after the deadline. But the county’s midterm election remains under scrutiny, and the board of elections faced calls to re-do the election entirely.

After more than an hour of public comment where several residents told the board not to certify the results, the board voted 3-2 in favor of certification. Board member Daniel Schramm , who had abstained from a Monday vote to certify, said he had changed his mind.

“I could find no reason why it should not be certified as having done,” he said. There was no close calls on the race.”

On election day,  polling places across the county ran out of paper used to print ballots.  The county district attorney is looking into what happened.

The Pennsylvania Department of State says its  “monitoring the situation,” but that there’s no indication Luzerne County would face penalties for missing the Nov. 28. deadline.

The department said Tuesday “a handful” of counties have not fully reported results from this month’s election, at least in part because organized efforts to seek recounts are pending in court.

Officials declined to say how many of the state’s 67 counties failed to meet the deadline for certification — the end of the day Monday.

In Berks County, the local Republican Committee and 94 voters sought recounts in more than two dozen precincts last week. Clay Breece, the Berks GOP chairman, has said his group fielded reports that electronic machines were switching votes but is not claiming the election was stolen.

Berks County government spokesperson Stephanie Weaver said the allegations involve 30 of the county’s 202 precincts.

“As far as where those petitions are, we are still waiting for them to be assigned to a judge and a court hearing to be scheduled,” Weaver said Tuesday.

Challenges in Westmoreland County held up certification in five of its 307 precincts, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported, over allegations voting machines were inaccurate and claims poll workers had mishandled mail-in ballots from people attempting to vote in person.

Three voters in Blair County sought a hand count of votes from the contests for governor and U.S. Senate from a single precinct in Altoona. During a hearing on Monday, the county’s lawyer argued the challengers needed to seek recounts for the entire county because those two offices were on the ballot in all of Blair’s precincts.

“If they do not bring forth allegations of particularized fraud or error — meaning not just general mistake, but this is a fraud, this is the specific error — if they are not going to specify that, then every precinct is required to be opened,” Blair County elections lawyer Nathan Karn said in a phone interview Tuesday. He said the deadline to seek such a countywide recount has passed.

The three voters’ lawyer, Thomas Forr, said a volunteer with the Audit the Vote PA organization paid $102 in court fees, the Altoona Mirror reported. A message seeking comment was left for Forr.

Audit the Vote PA head Toni Shuppe declined comment, saying in an email that her group would not “engage with propaganda media sources.” The judge in that matter has not ruled whether to dismiss the petition or order a recount.