The Pennsylvania House chamber. (Capital-Star photo by Peter Hall)
Control of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives appeared to hinge on the results of a single race in Cambria County, where a voting system glitch caused chaos on Election Day and pushed the vote count into Wednesday afternoon.
Although the Associated Press had not declared the winner in eight state House races as of noon Wednesday, Democrats were focusing on three particularly close districts.
By mid-afternoon, House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery) said the party was confident of victory in all but one: the race between incumbent Rep. Frank Burns (D-Cambria) and his Republican challenger Amy Bradley, who was endorsed. by GOP megadonor Jeff Yass.
“The only thing in question is the protection of Cambria County Frank Burns,” Bradford told the Capital-Star on Wednesday.
Democrats in the other two close races claimed victory Wednesday afternoon, although the Associated Press still had not called the races. Incumbent Rep. Brian Munroe (D-Bucks) had a 2.5% lead over Republican Daniel McPhillips. Democrat Sean Dougherty had a nearly 2% lead over Republican Aziz Gill in Philadelphia’s northeast district, where Democratic Rep. Kevin Boyle lost a primary challenge this year in the midst of personal problems.
Bradford said Democrats were watching closely as Cambria County officials tried to recover from a cascade of election problems Tuesday.
“Granted, it wasn’t great. It was far from great. We must ensure that the actual intention of every voter is recorded,” said Bradford. “The failure of the commissioners to ensure such a process is not only disheartening, it is disturbing.”
Cambria County election results showed Burns in the lead with 57% of the vote Wednesday afternoon, but it was unclear how many ballots remained to be counted.
Cambria County Commissioner Scott Hunt said at a news conference Tuesday that election officials encountered problems scanning ballots immediately after polls opened at 7 a.m.
“At first we thought the problem was caused by a software glitch. As late as the morning hours, we discovered that the problem was instead caused by the ballots themselves. They were not printed correctly and therefore the machines could not scan them,” Hunt said.
The Board of Elections has filed a request for emergency relief in Cambria County Court for permission to keep the polls open late because of the outages. Presiding Judge Linda Rovder Fleming issued an order late Tuesday morning granting the board’s request to extend voting hours until 10 p.m. Tuesday. All votes cast after 8 p.m. were required to be cast by provisional ballot, the order said.
Meanwhile, county officials tried to deal with the voting problem. In consultation with the Department of State and the county attorney, election workers were instructed to store unscanned ballots in key lock boxes where they would otherwise be kept after scanning, attorney Ronald Repak told the Capital-Star on Wednesday.
But after the lock boxes were full, the Board of Elections again consulted the State Department and the attorney to authorize sheriff’s deputies to receive the ballots and deliver them to the elections office.
A House Democratic staffer who spoke on background said concerns remain about the chain of custody during that process.
Since polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Board of Elections has been working to ensure all ballots are counted accurately. The votes that gave Burns his current lead mirror those of the mail-in ballots, which were not affected by the scanning problem, Repak said.
The ballots that cannot be scanned, including any ballots voted before about 3 p.m. Tuesday, are being duplicated by hand by election officials while representatives from each party watch, Repak said, adding that he was unsure how many ballots were in that category were. .
Repak did not provide an estimate of when the count would be completed.
About 2,000 ballots were cast after the reprinted ballots were delivered to scannable polling places, and all votes cast during the extended voting hours were provisional ballots, which must be counted under a separate process, Repak said.
Repak said the county conducted all required testing before Election Day but experienced no problems with the ballots or machines until the polls opened.
Burns has represented the 72nd Legislative District for 16 years and is seeking re-election for a ninth term. He is an increasingly rare Democrat in rural areas in a county where former President Donald Trump won by about 37 points in 2020.
Bradley, a former television journalist and president of the Cambria Region Chamber, ran unopposed for the Republican nomination to challenge Burns.
Television advertising data obtained by the Capital-Star in September shows that the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a $45 million political action committee largely funded by Montgomery County billionaire Yass, approximately $472,000 spent on television commercials for Bradley.
Burns’ district is one of eight Democratic-controlled districts in the state House that the Commonwealth Leaders Fund has put money into. McPhillips’ most recent campaign finance report shows the PAC spent nearly $640,000 on in-kind contributions to his campaign. Bradley’s most recent campaign finance report, scheduled for Oct. 25, was not available online Wednesday.
Bradford said Wednesday he is confident Democrats in the state House have defeated the “red wave” that resulted in Republican victories in state offices and the presidency.
“While only one more race can be called, it is a credit to the stewardship of the House of Representatives and our Democratic governor that we were able to do what no other legislative body has been able to do,” said Bradford, noting the success of the chamber in a divided Legislature in enacting “people-oriented” legislation, such as child care tax credits and increased property tax and rent rebates for seniors.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
