Two PA Counties Extend Voting Hours After Problems At Polls

Polls opened at 7 a.m. on Election Day in Pennsylvania, but not in Laflin Borough, in Luzerne County. The polls there opened at 8:30, an hour and a half late.

In response, the Luzerne County Board of Elections went to court seeking permission to extend voting hours in Laflin, which is near Wilkes-Barre. The court agreed to the extension and ordered the polling place to be open for 90 extra minutes, closing at 9:30 p.m.

The Luzerne County Democrat party and the state Republican Party joined the county in requesting an extension.

The court filing did not explain why the polling place opened late, saying only that the Board of Elections learned that “election officers failed to timely open the polling location in Laughlin which resulted in delays in the process of voting.”

Local television WNEP reported that the judge of elections arrived late and when the poll did finally open, workers could not open the ballot scanner, leaving the first voters to vote by paper.    

Bad Ballots

Voting was extended in Cambria County too, after the electronic voting system software malfunctioned. This caused long lines, and some voters left before voting.

According to Cambria’s court filing to request extended voting hours, the system was down for hours and was not functioning by the time the county filed the request for more time.

The court agreed to extend voting until 10 p.m., but after 8 p.m. in Cambria, all votes will be provisional.    

Late in the day, a county official reported that the problem was a code on the side of the ballot that the scanner would not read. The county dispersed new ballots to polling locations, and voting was expected to proceed normally, according to a statement Cambria County issued.

“Those individuals who have already voted please be assured that said ballots are secured,” the statement said. “The Election Board has taken emergency protocols to safeguard that certified individuals have followed the chain of custody to ensure each vote is secured and will be counted.”

The ballots that were cast but could not be scanned will be kept in a lock box and will be counted by hand, a county official said.

Election Day got off to a rough start in other Pennsylvania counties, as Republican poll observers were turned away from polling places in Philadelphia, York, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Lehigh, Cambria, Wyoming, and Lackawanna counties. The Republican National Committee intervened, and ultimately the court-appointed poll watchers were allowed to observe.  

Battleground Pennsylvania has 19 coveted electoral votes and has been the focus of intense campaigning from both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The state also has a possibility of flipping a U.S. Senate seat, held for three terms by Democrat Bob Casey Jr., who is being challenged by Republican Dave McCormick.

The Pennsylvania Department of State has been preparing voters for weeks not to expect results on election night.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.