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Paper ballot issue discussed in Luzerne County

During Tuesday's primary, the polling location in Hunlock Township temporarily ran out of paper ballots.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Another election, another paper problem in Luzerne County.  

During Tuesday's primary, the polling location in Hunlock Township temporarily ran out of paper ballots.

"No one was disenfranchised because we had the voters vote on a voter machine in the meantime, so it was a minor little issue," explained Luzerne County Director of Elections, Eryn Harvey. 

A worker from the election bureau had to deliver more paper ballots to the polling location. 

"We didn't send the extra, we had them in the office ordered because we did have enough ballots for every registered voter, but we didn't send them all for security reasons, and the Department of State recommends that we don't send them. So that is why we didn't do that, but going forward, we have to address that if we want to continue to use the paper ballots," said Harvey

The election bureau uses a formula provided by the state to estimate how many paper ballots would be needed at a particular polling place.  

That number is determined by averaging the number of voters who came out for the past three primary elections.

Based on that formula, elections officials prepared for about 250 voters at the Hunlock Township location, but more than 300 voters turned up.

"We've had a decrease in the mail-in ballots this year than we've had in the past, so I think that could be it, people went to the polls than mail-in ballots this time because we sent out 1,900 mail-ins and we got about 14 to 15,000 back here," said Harvey. 

Despite this issue, county leaders call yesterday's election a smooth one but know they still have work to do to regain the trust of voters.

"We have work to do, and they people who want to do it, so we will do it." said incoming Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo. 

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