WILKES-BARRE - There will be a new election in Schuylkill and Carbon counties for the Hazleton Area school board in the next 29 days, two Luzerne County judges ruled Tuesday.
Steve Hahn, a candidate for the board who withdrew prior to the election, received more than 500 votes in those counties when the Luzerne County Elections Bureau didn't remove him from the ballot.
After the withdrawal, Director of Elections Marisa Crispell "did not think to notify the other two counties" that make up the district, county Election Board Chairman H. Jeremy Packard said.
She did know that they were part of the district, Packard said, calling his statement to the contrary, published in The Republican-Herald on Tuesday, a "misunderstanding."
The election results in Luzerne County, where Hahn was removed from the ballot, will stand and be certified, President Judge Thomas Burke and Judge Michael Vough ruled.
Luzerne County must also reimburse the plaintiffs' legal fees and pay for the cost of the election, which solicitor David Pedri has estimated at $2,300.
The ruling came the same day as a contentious county council meeting in which the election board survived a vote that would have fired the volunteer, five-member body. Councilman Edward Brominski was the only one of nine present members who voted to terminate the board.
A white-haired Packard, his sleeves rolled up as if ready for a tussle, gave a jovial but robust defense of the election board's and the election director's performance in the election, saying despite the "significant" and "major" problem in the Hazleton Area school board for which Crispell has taken full responsibility, it overall was a well-run election.
Council Chairman Tim McGinley, speaking after the vote, called the problems in the election "honest mistakes," and urged both sides to work together to improve the results of the current and future election.
"We've got work to do," McGinley said.