Pennsylvania county settles federal lawsuit over ballot paper shortages in 2022 voting
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A northeastern county of Pennsylvania, where ballot shortages caused problems during the 2022 election — halting some votes and requiring a judge to extend office hours — has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to ensure sufficient paper will be ordered for future elections.
Luzerne County signed the settlement last week with two voters who, due to the paper shortage, were unable to cast their ballots at polling places in Freeland and Shickshinny. The county will pay $30,000 for legal costs and will train election workers, including how to order enough paper.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Scranton in March 2023, argued that “the election day chaos was entirely preventable and predictable” and was partly the result of inadequate training. The dismissal letter in the case was filed on Tuesday.
“When polling places ran out of paper, election officials and employees were instructed to tell voters they could not vote and to come back later. Those voters would later return, but were denied the right to vote again because polling places still had no paper ballots,” the complaint alleged.
A judge kept polls open two hours longer in Luzerne County as a result of the problems, which contributed to a delay in reporting election results. The problems halted voting at 16 of Luzerne’s 143 polling places, in some cases just until they could turn to using emergency or provisional ballots.
An August letter from Luzerne County Attorney Drew McLaughlin to the federal judge hearing the case said there have been no ballot paper shortages during the four elections held there in the past two years — the 2023 primaries and 2024, the 2023 general election and a special election.
McLaughlin said many of the improvements agreed to in the settlement have already been implemented, including training and procedural changes. Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo signed off on the settlement Thursday.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, McLaughlin called the 2022 voting problems in Luzerne County “kind of a bizarre event that won’t happen again.”
In June 2023, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce announced his investigation into the ballot shortage found no evidence of criminal activity or deliberate attempts to prevent voting. Sanguedolce, an elected Republican, attributed the problems to inexperienced supervisors.
Donald Trump won Luzerne County in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.