Approximately 6,700 mail-in ballots will be re-issued in Luzerne County after the name of state Rep. Alec Ryncavage was misspelled.
A statement released by county officials on Friday said their investigation revealed the error originated in a file transferred from the vendor to the printer, but that they were working to confirm those findings.
The erroneous ballots listed the 119th district incumbent's name as “Alec J. Tyncavage.”
Ryncavage, who said he started receiving calls about the error on Friday morning and immediately contacted county officials, called it "a disheartening moment for Luzerne County."
First elected to the post in 2022, Republican Ryncavage will face a challenge from Democrat Megan Kocher on Nov. 5. Both are from Plymouth.
What voters need to know
County officials also started receiving calls about the mistake on Friday morning.
According to a response issued Friday by the county's Bureau of Elections:
"After reporting this issue to the Department of State and discussing potential remedies with the impacted candidate it has been decided the best course of action is to cancel the ballots that were issued to approximately 6,700 impacted voters and issue the correct ballots," the statement reads.
"To mitigate confusion for the impacted voters the Bureau of Elections will be issuing a postcard via the mail to inform the specific individuals of the situation and to expect their new ballot within a few days," it added.
As of Friday afternoon the Bureau had not received any ballots from impacted voters.
"If a voter sends their original ballot in, they will still receive the corrected ballot and a postcard notifying them of the issue," the statement said.
Those who do not receive a ballot via the mail by Oct. 26 can contact the Bureau at 570-825-1715 for additional options such as coming to the Bureau in person or voting provisionally on Election Day, the statement says.
There are 39,837 people registered to vote in the district.
How did this happen?
The county is saying that the mistake seems to stem from a vendor error.
"The correct ballot approved by the Board of Elections and Registration was posted to our webpage and sent to the vendor," the statement says.
A WVIA News check of the county's website on Friday showed Ryncavage's name to have been spelled correctly on sample ballots.
"Our investigation demonstrates that the file from our vendor, which was sent to the printer contained the error. We are working on confirming our findings," the statement added.
Ryncavage: 'A troubling issue'
Ryncavage said he is encouraging voters to hold off on sending their ballots and to wait for the new ballots.
He is frustrated about the situation, and potential confusion for voters, especially if they have mailed in the ballots with the misspelling.
"We will closely monitor developments as the Election Board continues to make decisions regarding the processing and final counting of all mail-in ballots," Ryncavage said.
Ryncavage also noted that it is both another Luzerne County election error — and the second which affected his district.
"Two years ago, my campaign was met with the shocking lack of paper at polling stations. Today, we are once again faced with a troubling issue — this time, the inaccuracy of over 6,700 ballots."
The county has in recent years been hit with a number of election-related errors, including the paper issue Ryncavage referred to and a 2020 incident in which nine ballots were mistakenly discarded by a contractor, leading to national scrutiny and high-level investigations.
