Dallas City News

Due to a misspelling of state Rep. Alec Ryncavage’s name, new Nov. 5 general election mail ballots are being sent to approximately 6,700 mail ballot voters in the 119th District, the county election bureau announced Friday.

Postcards explaining the situation also will be sent to impacted voters.

The error was discovered Friday morning because voters started receiving mail ballots and reported the misspelling.

The 119th District covers the following municipalities: Nanticoke, Ashley, Edwardsville, Larksville, Plymouth, Sugar Notch, Warrior Run and the townships of Fairview, Hanover, Newport, Plymouth, Rice and Wright.

Ryncavage (R-Plymouth) is running against Democrat Megan Kocher. His last name appeared as Tyncavage on the ballot.

“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 announcement said.

“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.”

The election bureau’s investigation “demonstrates that the file from our vendor, which was sent to the printer, contained the error,” the announcement said, noting the bureau is “working on confirming our findings.”

Ryncavage’s name was spelled correctly on both sample ballots the election bureau had publicly posted in advance as part of the proofing process. The name also was spelled correctly on the ballot approved by the county Election Board.

Because only one mail ballot bar code can be activated for each voter, the codes attached to the 6,700 already-sent ballots must be deactivated so new ballots with fresh bar codes can be generated and issued.

However, officials said all ballots in the 119th District will be segregated to ensure those with the misspelling are accepted if impacted voters do not cast a new ballot. In such cases, a selection for Tyncavage would be credited toward Ryncavage’s tally.

Tracking systems prevent the acceptance of more than one ballot per individual, officials have stressed.

While the error will leave voters with less time to return their ballots, the county is still technically within its deadline because ballots are not required to be issued until Oct. 22. County officials has been aiming to get mail ballots in voters’ hands as soon as possible so they have time to return them by regular mail.

Completed mail ballots must be physically in the election bureau by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Two mail ballot drop boxes are available:

• Broad Street Exchange, 100 W. Broad St., Hazleton: weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. through Nov. 1 and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 4. This box is not available on Election Day.

• Penn Place main lobby, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays (Oct. 15, 22 and 29); 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the other weekdays; and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. In addition, the box will be available on three weekends from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Oct. 19-20, Oct. 26-27 and Nov. 2-3).

The election bureau had not received any ballots with the misspelling from voters as of Friday afternoon. All impacted voters will receive a corrected ballot and postcard, including those that complete and return the original ballot, the announcement said.

Voters who do not receive a correct ballot by Oct. 26 can contact the election bureau at 570-825-1715 for additional options, such as coming to the bureau to vote in person or casting a provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day, the announcement said.

Ryncavage’s response

Immediately after the bureau’s announcement, Ryncavage released this statement:

On Friday morning, it was brought to my attention by voters in the 119th District that they received their mail-in ballots, and my name was spelled incorrectly on their ballots. They were confused and despite wanting to, did not feel comfortable voting for me because they did not think their vote would count for Alec Ryncavage.

I immediately contacted the Luzerne County manager and was told they were aware of my name being misspelled and contacted the Department of State to determine a solution.

PA Election Code states the Election Board is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the ballot, including that the candidates’ names are spelled properly. Accordingly, it appears that the Board should be responsible for correcting this error on the ballot.

This is a disheartening moment for Luzerne County. 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.

We will closely monitor developments as the Election Board continues to make decisions regarding the processing and final counting of all mail-in ballots.”

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.