EBENSBURG, Pennsylvania — An issue with paper ballots has thrown Election Day into chaos in deep-red Cambria County, Pennsylvania — forcing officers to hand-count many 1000’s of votes by hand within the essential swing state.
The ballots had been printed improperly by William Penn Printing and couldn’t be scanned correctly by election machines, Commissioner Keith Rager instructed The Put up.
Officers mentioned all votes will nonetheless be counted — however ballot leads to the county of 133,000 will probably be delayed on Tuesday night time.
A decide additionally agreed to maintain polls open an additional two hours within the county, till 10 p.m., to make up for the issues.
Rager mentioned 1000’s of freshly printed ballots, which do work within the voting machines, had been rushed from Pittsburgh, about 70 miles away, to polling websites throughout the county.
Shortly after 1:15 p.m. ET, officers started distributing a batch of “good” ballots that didn’t have the printing points to polling websites.
“I need individuals in our county to know that we’re doing every thing we will. This was thrown at us at 7 o’clock this morning,” Rager instructed The Put up.
“Every little thing’s secured.”
Cambria County went for former President Donald Trump by about 68% in 2020.
Officers obtained experiences shortly after polls opened at 7 a.m. that election machines weren’t scanning the ballots, in accordance with Rager.
“Initially, we had thought that it was a software program situation, and we had been making an attempt to right. Upon additional investigation, we discovered that there was a difficulty with the ballots not with the ability to be scanned into the system,” Alex Ashcom, Cambria County’s chief clerk instructed The Put up.
“In response to this, we issued directives to all the different polling precincts to nonetheless take ballots, nonetheless preserve individuals voting, and to gather them and depend them by hand, moderately than through the use of the machine as a backup.”
The county’s officers had scrambled to hustle a brand new cargo of about 35,000 “good” ballots that might be learn by election machines into precincts all through the county.
“No person is throwing ballots out,” Rager mentioned.
“Beginning tomorrow we’re going to discover out who’s accountable,” he added of the poll printing snafu whereas stressing that the rapid focus Tuesday is conserving issues working as easily as potential.
William Penn Printing didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday.
“If this occurred in Pittsburgh or Philly, this is able to have been large. It’s large sufficient already,” he added concerning the scope of the issue.
Voters who arrive at polls after 8 p.m. will forged their votes by way of provisional poll, in accordance with the Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s Workplace.
Rager mentioned he didn’t know the way badly the issues would gradual the Cambria County election outcomes. Nevertheless, he mentioned, “inside purpose tonight, individuals will see outcomes.”
Nonetheless, the county shouldn’t be allowed to begin counting ballots till 8:01 p.m. ET in step with state regulation, Rager mentioned.
“There’s 3,000 counties in America, why did it must be this one?” one native man was heard muttering exterior the Cambria County Courthouse.
Poll troubles in Pennsylvania are significantly noteworthy on condition that the Keystone State has the most important variety of electoral votes of the swing states in play on Election Day.
Trump has a 0.6 proportion level edge over Vice President Kamala Harris within the newest RealClearPolitics combination of multi-candidate polling. The forty fifth president had flipped the state in 2016 however misplaced it in 2020.