WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — It's been a week since voters went to the polls, and they are still counting votes for the Republican nominee in Luzerne County's 117th State House District.
The winner of the GOP primary is likely to win the seat, as there is no Democrat challenger.
The count was updated by one military ballot as a very lengthy and tedious process continues in the elections bureau, making sure every vote and even partial votes are counted.
"You come across a lot of different scenarios that will impact the speed at which things are processed, and our board is extremely thorough, going through each and every potential aspect of each ballot to make sure that it is, first and foremost, a valid vote, and that it gets counted," said Emily Cook, acting director of elections in Luzerne County.
Newswatch 16 was there as the board took more than an hour to count nine provisional votes cast by voters who showed up to vote at the wrong polling place.
"They are informed. Obviously, if they're in the wrong location, we give them the location they're supposed to be at, and then ultimately, you'll have voters who just don't want to go to another place. And we have to make sure that each voter is given the opportunity to vote, so those ballots will only be counted partially for only the contests that those voters would have been eligible to vote in," Cook said.
With the transposing of these ballots, vote by vote, a very strict order and process has to be followed and recorded so in terms of the close 117th District race, results will change as these are counted.
"The way that this process is set up, it doesn't discriminate against any contest or doesn't segregate any contest in particular. It's countywide, every vote, every provisional ballot, every mail-in ballot, every single one has to be counted. And we do have a set agenda in terms of what gets counted and when. And that way, everything stays fair," Cook said.
On Tuesday, about 30 ballots were reviewed and counted. Only one affects the contest between Walsh and Cabell in the 117th District.
There are 13 Republican provisional ballots that were contested on Monday. There will be a hearing on Friday on whether those ballots should be counted.