Pennsylvania county settles federal lawsuit over ballot paper shortages in 2022 voting

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A northeastern Pennsylvania county where ballot paper shortages caused problems during the 2022 election — halting some voting and requiring a judge to extend poll hours — has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to ensure sufficient paper will be ordered for future elections.

Luzerne County signed off last week on the settlement with two voters who, as a result of the paper shortages, were unable to cast ballots in that election at polling places in Freeland and Shickshinny. The county will pay $30,000 for litigation expenses and will train election workers, including on the topic of ordering sufficient paper.

The lawsuit filed in March 2023 in federal court in Scranton argued that “the chaos on Election Day was entirely preventable and predictable” and was partly the result of inadequate training. The dismissal notice in the case was filed Tuesday.

“When polling places ran out of paper, election officials and workers were instructed to tell voters they could not vote and to come back later. Those voters would return later only to be denied the right to vote again because the polling places still had no paper ballots,” the complaint alleged.

A judge kept polls open for two extra hours in Luzerne County as a result of the issues, which contributed to a delay in reporting election results. The problems caused voting to stop in 16 of Luzerne’s 143 polling locations, in some cases just until they could turn to the use of emergency or provisional ballots.

An August letter from Luzerne County’s lawyer, Drew McLaughlin, to the federal judge handling the case, said ballot paper shortages have not occurred during the four elections held there the past two years — primaries in 2023 and 2024, the General Election of 2023 and a special election.

McLaughlin said many of the improvements agreed to in the settlement have already been adopted, including training and procedural changes. Luzerne County manager Romilda Crocamo signed off on the settlement Thursday.

In a phone interview Wednesday, McLaughlin called the 2022 voting problems in Luzerne County “kind of a freak occurence that’s not going to happen again.”

In June 2023, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce announced his investigation into the ballot paper shortage found no evidence of criminal activity or purposeful efforts 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 contests.