- Northampton County election staff will begin canvassing about 2,160 emergency paper ballots Thursday afternoon
- The figure shouldn't be enough to shift outcomes in high-profile races such as Northampton County judge and county controller
- The emergency ballots were needed after poll workers discovered an error with the voting machines on Election Day
EASTON, Pa. — Northampton County election staff will get to work this afternoon as they begin counting more than 2,000 emergency paper ballots that were cast Tuesday because of flaws with the election machines.
County spokeswoman Brittney Waylen said Thursday morning the county will canvass 235 provisional ballots and about 2,160 emergency paper ballots starting at 1 p.m.
The unusually high number of emergency ballots aren't enough to shift some high-profile races such as Northampton County judge or Northampton County controller.
But depending on how many of those ballots came from which districts, those emergency ballots could potentially change close, down-ballot races.
Poll workers across the county instructed voters Tuesday to use the emergency ballots after discovering the voting machines produced paper backups that did not match voters' selections.
The county later determined the problem was contained to retention questions for two Superior Court judges. An investigation determined the digital ballot in the machine correctly recorded the votes.
A court order later let the county continue to use the voting machines, but that came hours after some polling places switched to emergency paper ballots.
ES&S, the county's voting machine vendor, has shouldered the blame for the error, saying an employee mislabeled the Superior Court races.
The county should have discovered the mistake during pre-election Logic and Accuracy Testing, county Executive Lamont McClure said, but election staff did not perform rigorous-enough testing.
This is the second time in five years ES&S has failed to prepare the county's election machines.
In 2019, the machines' first run in Northampton County, the machines failed to digitally record votes cast for judicial candidate Abe Kassis.
The election was salvaged because the paper backups produced by the machines did accurately record the votes.
