The state department that oversees elections is contradicting Luzerne County officials and blames the county for sending 31 voters two mail-in ballots for the Nov. 4 election.
“After investigating this issue, the Department of State determined that Luzerne County inadvertently and incorrectly generated duplicate mailing labels for 30 voters,” the department said in a statement. “This issue was isolated to Luzerne County.”
The statement also said the State Uniform Registry of Elections (SURE), Pennsylvania’s voter registration database, only counts one ballot for each voter.
County officials on Tuesday blamed the registry for mistakenly producing two mail-in ballots for 31 voters, and immediately cancelled the extra ballots.
County Bureau of Elections director Emily Cook said two voters contacted the bureau Monday to report receiving two mail-in ballots. The bureau reported what happened to the Department of State and provided “all relevant information to assist with identifying the root cause of the SURE system error.”
“I want to make it very clear that this wasn't an issue that happened because of the office,” Cook said in a Tuesday interview. “It's an issue that happened through a system that we have to use, but it's used throughout the state. So, it's not a specifically Luzerne County issue. It's not something that we did ourselves.”
Efforts to interview Cook and state election officials were not immediately successful Wednesday.
