'It's A Printer's Mistake': Ballots Of Republican Voters In PA Missing Barcodes

[G.L.R.]

Mostly Republican Bllots Fail to Scan in Pennsylvania County Election, Stoking Concerns

May 20, 2021



A number of ballots couldn't be scanned during local elections this week in a southwestern county in Pennsylvania, triggering fresh concerns about election integrity.

The ballots, mostly from Republican voters in Fayette County, were missing bar codes that typically help facilitate electronic scanning. "What we know at this point in time is that a bar code that's required to allow the paper ballots to be scanned at the polling places was missing," state Rep. Matthew Dowling, a Republican, told The Epoch Times. George Rattay, chairman of the Fayette County Democratic Party, was present when the issues began around 7 p.m. on May 18. He said nobody initially knew what the problem was. He and others went to the county Bureau of Elections and found out it was a bar code issue. "The majority of them were Republican ballots,"... A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation. A hand recount was taking place on May 20. "Alternative solutions to the scanning issues were already established and are being enacted. Election officials are currently in direct contact with the judges of elections at all precincts. All judges were trained on these procedures prior to the election," the county said." Republican county officials helped obtain a judicial order that directed a hand count of all unscanned ballots.

"I'm assuming there was nothing nefarious, although I think that does have to be investigated to see why this happened." The issue compounds an already low level of faith among some voters in election integrity, with some of the representatives' constituents saying they aren't willing to vote again. Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower told CBS Pittsburgh that his office plans to investigate what happened. The office didn't immediately return a voicemail on May 20. Bill Kozlovich, chairman of the Fayette County Republican Party, told The Epoch Times that he believes the missing barcodes stemmed from a mistake by the printing company. Fayette County uses Dominion Voting Systems machines. Issues cropped up with Dominion machines in Luzerne County in the May 18 election. Read more ...

Mostly Republican Ballots Fail to Scan in Pennsylvania County Election, Stoking Concerns
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/mostly-republican-ballots-fail-to-scan-in-pennsylvania-county-election-stoking-concerns_3823795.html