The primary election ran smoothly in Lebanon County on Tuesday, one day after it was revealed a duplicate list of names requesting mail ballots was sent to voters.
Meanwhile, in the county’s only contested race, Diamond, who is in his fifth term, won the Republican nomination, defeating challenger Rachel Moyer, according to Lebanon County election results.
Read More: Lebanon County 2024 primary election results
Diamond received 5,773 votes to Moyer’s 3,078 votes in the district representing most of Lebanon County.
On Monday, the county’s board of elections issued a press release citing human error for causing 350 ballots to be printed and sent twice to voters who had requested them.
The release says the office discovered the error after the ballots were printed and mailed on Wednesday, April 17. According to county records, the release says, those same 350 voters were previously sent ballots on April 13.
Read More: Don’t worry – even if you received two mail-in ballots, you still can’t vote twice
Elections director Sean Drasher told LebTown that duplicate ballots would not be counted a second time if any were returned to the election office. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, it was believed no duplicate ballots had been returned.
Drasher noted the scanning equipment that’s used when a ballot is received would have flagged any duplicate immediately.
“We’re hand processing them here (via a scanner) and we can’t process (the duplicates),” said Drasher. “If you tried, it would stop you and you can’t do anything with it.”
Drasher added that scanning the outside of the envelope is not counting the votes on the ballot.
“Scanning doesn’t mean counting the vote,” he added. “We’re checking the barcode and making sure the corresponding ID matches up. You can’t even move forward to process the ballot until it is approved. It will tell you this person has already voted, so there’s no way to move forward. When you ping it, it tells you right away that the person has already voted, so there’s no way for it to go to the next stop.”
LebTown asked Drasher about the barcode on the outside of the mail ballot envelope and its purpose, since questions were raised on social media asking if the code could reveal a voter’s identity.
“It is a randomly generated number that’s only used for that one piece of mail, it doesn’t apply to anything else,” said Drasher. “It doesn’t apply to the voter’s record, it just applies to that one piece of mail. You can get more information from reading the address on the piece of mail. That digit is not a voter ID number, it’s not (a) social (security number).”
LebTown also asked Drasher if it is possible for the vendor to catch duplicates prior to them being mailed. He said a week was needed to determine the answer to that question but added that voting officials know exactly what and how it happened.
Read More: Don’t worry – even if you received two mail-in ballots, you still can’t vote twice
He added that timing of the county learning about the duplication the day before the election means they have not had time to further discuss the issue internally.
By late Tuesday morning, Drasher said about 15 election workers had processed more than 6,000 of the mail-in ballots received, adding that canvassing the mail ballots went smoothly. A total of 6,347 absentee/mail-in ballots were cast in the primary election.
“It went really well. We wrapped up by lunch, so we’re done,” he said in mid-afternoon. “We really flew through it today. We’ll reconvene around 6:30 tonight and we’ll have about an hour to get the rest together by the end of the day.”
Drasher said the percentage of mail ballots returned for this election was higher than expected.
“We’re at 78 percent return rate, which is incredibly high for this election,” he said. “Last year, we were getting close to 90 which is at the top of the ratio, top of the chart for PA. Really impressive. For this one, I felt so low because we were coming in a week ago at 55 percent, so I thought we’re not going to get to 60. But we had strong, steady returns every day, so, yeah, we’re really good.”
The satellite office, opened for the first time this year, has been popular with voters, he said.
“The return rate at the satellite office went from like 25 to 28, max 28, now it is like 36 percent return,” said Drasher. “We were getting a little bit every day, so it doesn’t feel like you are being overwhelmed with ballots. Like, 70 or 80 a day, but you add that up over a lot of days and all of a sudden it is better than a third, so we had a nice jump. I’m pretty darned pleased.”
Election worker Beth McCann said she canvassed during the morning and was sent to work the satellite office for the afternoon until it closed at 8 p.m. It was the sixth time she worked the booth that allowed voters to return their mail ballots to a secure location staffed by an election worker or county employee.
“It’s been fairly steady today,” said McCann, who was reading the highly acclaimed “The Covenant of Water” when not accepting ballots or speaking to the media. “I don’t get much more than a page read, but yeah, people are still dropping them off.”
Read More: Local voters return mail-in, absentee ballots on 1st day of new satellite office
McCann, of Palmyra, said she was skeptical at first about the satellite office but used it herself to return her ballot for this election. About 20 mail ballots had been returned in the two hours she had been working at the office, which allowed voters to drive up to it.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised,” she said. “When I volunteered to do it, I was kind of like why do we need it? I put a stamp on mine and returned it in the mail but I did bring it in this year.”
She said her experience with voters the six times she worked the office was always nice.
“The feedback? People are really pleasant,” said McMann. “They enjoy that it is drive up. The older people enjoy that they don’t have to park and walk and that it is very convenient. There was a little confusion because it got moved from where it was and one person was concerned about safety, but there’s a camera there (pointing to the front roof area of the shed) and I am told there are more on the building.”
McMann said she is a big fan of mail voting, adding she voted that way when it was made available to Pennsylvania voters. She is a caregiver for her father who has dementia and she wanted to lower exposure to the virus during the pandemic.
“I didn’t bother to take the time to vote before I became semi-retired to take care of my father,” said McMann, who owned and ran a horse farm before retirement. “I believe I will stay with mail-in since I still take care of my dad and it is more convenient. It’s easier to do. It makes me feel more accountable that I will get it done.”
In fact, now that she is an election worker, she’s all about performing her civic duty. “I’m doing my duty for democracy!” she exclaimed.
Although McCann is what is considered a “typical” poll worker — an adult who is most likely retired — 30 Lebanon High School students broke the mold by manning the polls on Election Day at 15 city precincts.
Junior Angelique Dominguez, 17, was working her first election and despite lower turnout — about 120 voters at 10th Ward at the Senior Center on Maple Street by mid-afternoon — she enjoyed the experience. Dominguez is a student in civics teacher Scott Rolon’s class, and he worked with the county’s election office to make it possible for his students to work at the city polls.
Dominguez handed out ballots and staffed the scanner to ensure that voters had scanned their ballots properly. She also helped to ensure some Spanish-speaking voters understood voting instructions.
“I think it’s been pretty interesting,” she said. “I want to be more involved in the community and I think this is a really great opportunity to learn more about politics and how voting works.”
Read More: Too young to vote, Lebanon HS students still hit the polls – as election workers
10th Ward election judge Terry Woodnorth, who is retired, said he’s pleased the younger generation is working the polls.
“They need to learn it from their social studies teacher, that’s important,” said Woodnorth. “But then seeing it in operation is really important, too. You want the younger generation to be engaged in civic life.”
Poll workers at that precinct discussed that they may get 100 votes given that there were no contested races at the city precincts. As of mid-afternoon, they had reached about 115, with Dominguez saying she hoped they reached 160 by the time the polls closed at 8 p.m.
One of the county’s larger precincts, 28E in North Londonderry Township, was doing brisk business. A contested race, incumbent Russ Diamond vs. challenger Rachel Moyer in the 102nd House District race, helped ensure a steady turnout.
Election judge Alex Wagner said 525 votes had been counted — and rising — as of about 6 p.m. Drasher said there are 2,097 registered voters in that precinct, meaning just over 25 percent of voters in that precinct had voted with about two hours until polls closed.
“It’s been pretty high today,” said Wagner. “They said there would probably be lower turnout since the presidential race was decided, but we’re aware that we’re one of the larger ones in the county. It’s been surprisingly steady throughout the day. The first 15 to 20 minutes were slow at the start of the day, but otherwise there’s been a steady turnout.”
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