District Attorney looking into irregularity in voting

Herald staff

MERCER COUNTY May 07, 2008 10:10 pm

— Two voters in the April 22 primary who weren’t registered Democrat or Republican were allowed to vote in the election, said Jeff Greenburg, Mercer County elections director.
The precinct judge of elections in both cases included the issue on a “problem sheet,” and Greenburg has passed the issue over to District Attorney Robert G. Kochems.
It is against election law for poll workers to let someone not registered to a political party to vote in that party’s primary, Greenburg said in a letter to Kochems.
The letter said the penalty can be severe, but it requires the poll worker to have made a “willful” mistake, which is why Kochems has been called in.
The two voters in question were registered to a minor party and the Green party, said the letter. They were permitted to vote in Farrell 2-2 and Hermitage SE-2 precincts.
Once the voters cast their ballots, there was no way to remove them from the electronic voting machine. Greenburg said it is unlikely they could have swung any election except for maybe a write-in Republican precinct committee person seat.
He said he did not know whether the voters were given Democrat or Republican ballots.