By Francis Scarcella
The Daily Item
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SUNBURY — The Northumberland County Board of Elections office must feel like a donkey for confusing political party affiliations of two candidates running for the 108th Legislative District seat.
Ninety absentee write-in ballots have been mailed that list Democrat Antonio Michetti as a Republican and Republican Lynda Schlegel-Culver as a Democrat.
The mistake came to light Tuesday when an unidentified man entered the county elections office and told the staff that a military friend called him and said the “ballots are messed up.”
The staff quickly fixed the errors and re-sent revised ballots to district voters serving in the military.
“It was a typing error and we got it corrected,” said Cortny Marise, director assistant at the election office. “It is all fine now.”
There are no plans to discipline any employees for the flub, Northumberland County Chief Clerk Kymberly Best said, adding that she is pleased with how the office has responded upon learning of the mistake.
“There was no attempt to cover things up or make excuses,” Best said.
“There is no reason to believe that the mistakes would lead to any ballot challenges because voters have to write in the name of their chosen candidates. There is no provision for straight-party voting on absentee ballots.”
Alisha Herb, Northumberland County elections director, said it cost $54 to mail 90 absentee ballots to members of the military in the 108th District.
New ballots, with the correct information, were mailed Tuesday.
Michetti was informed of the error and contacted Rodger Babnew, the chair for the Northumberland County Democratic Party, and inquired about the mistake.
Babnew confirmed with the elections office that the absentee ballots were incorrect.
Michetti contacted Schlegel-Culver as soon as he heard, he said.
“I contact Lynda and explained to her what was going on,” Michetti said.
Schlegel-Culver was appreciative of her opponent’s thoughtfulness.
“It was super nice of Tony to let me know what was going on,” she said. “I understand they fixed the problem and I understand people make mistakes.
“It happens.”
E-mail comments to fscarcella@dailyitem.com.
