Voters seeking a recount of the ballots in the Schuylkill County district attorney race won a victory Tuesday as a judge refused to dismiss their petition and allowed them to add further allegations in support of their claims.
After a 90-minute hearing, President Judge William E. Baldwin denied the request of supporters of Republican candidate Christine A. Holman to dismiss the petition and allowed backers of District Attorney Karen Byrnes-Noon to amend their petition to allege mishandling of absentee ballots.
"The members of the resolution board created duplicate ballots where there was a problem with the original ballot without noting that it was a duplicate ballot," according to the amended petition filed after the hearing.
Furthermore, a representative of the voting machines' manufacturer, Diebold, improperly overturned decisions of the resolution board, according to the petition.
Baldwin scheduled another hearing in the case for 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Holman, Barnesville, a former assistant district attorney, was certified on Nov. 13 as the winner of the Nov. 5 election against incumbent Byrnes-Noon, Ashland, 15,265 to 15,192, after a contentious campaign.
The petition asks Baldwin to appoint a committee to conduct a recount of the paper absentee ballots.
Baldwin had dismissed an earlier petition filed by Byrnes-Noon's supporters, ruling it did not comply with state law.
He rejected the request by Maria T. Casey, Minersville, Holman's lawyer, to throw out the petition due to the failure to post a bond, ruling the $1,000 paid by Lawrence M. Otter, Doylestown, Byrnes-Noon's lawyer, was sufficient.
"What's more sure than cash? The purpose of the bond is to make sure you can get the cash. The county has the money. It's the amount the court ordered," Baldwin said.
He also ruled that the petitioners do not have to show fraud in order to succeed.
"If there's a failure to comply with election law, it's illegal," Baldwin said in rejecting Casey's arguments.
Casey offered all of the testimony Tuesday, calling supporters of Byrnes-Noon to show they had no personal knowledge of the alleged problems with the ballots.
"I heard that there were some issues ... with the ballot scanners," county Democratic Party Chairman Hugh M.S. Reiley testified.
"You didn't personally observe anything?" Casey asked Reiley.
"No," he answered.
Nevertheless, Byrnes-Noon's supporters testified they believe a recount is justified from what they have heard.
"It just seems very evident ... something was going on, something was wrong," Chief Deputy Sheriff Brian Tobin testified. "It appears to me that it's in the best interest of the electorate that we get a look at these absentee ballots."
After the hearing, Otter said the four-member county resolution board, which has the task of settling any disputes involving absentee ballots, created new ballots when there were problems with original ones without noting the duplication, an allegation he repeated in the amended petition.
"I have a witness. It will come out in the hearing," he said. "A member of the board ... used that new ballot to run through the optical scanner."
Casey said she doubted that any such events occurred.
"We're quite surprised. He keeps coming up with new facts," she said of Otter. "(It) seems very improbable to us. We're only hearing that for the first time today."