More than 100 county residents filed petitions with the Centre County Elections Office on Nov. 28, seeking a recount of the Nov. 8 general election in their respective precincts.
They were just a few days late.
According to Joyce McKinley, Centre County’s director of elections, 32 precincts had three or more voting qualified individuals petition to have their precinct’s vote recounted. She said individuals in six other precincts also filed for a recount; however, for different reasons (including not having the required three petitioners), these were automatically rejected.
McKinley said the petitioners’ reasons for wanting a recount varied, including concerns of hacking and malware viruses on voting software. She said all the petitions sought recounts for the presidential and Pennsylvania state Senate races.
State law allows for a citizen-driven recount if the petitioning parties meet all the criteria, including the minimum of three petitioners. There is also a five-day window after the computation of votes within which these petitions must be filed.
According to McKinley, the vote computation was certified Nov. 17 and the deadline to file petitions was Nov. 22, thus disqualifying the petitions filed Nov. 28.
Mary Vollero, representing Vote PA, and Joanne Tosti-Vasey, representing Concerned Voters of Centre County, said their groups organized the mass petitioning, and on the advice of their legal counsel, filed the petitions in what they thought was the proper time frame. Both women were in attendance at the Nov. 29 meeting of the board of elections. They said they filed Nov. 28, using the ‘five-day’ window as ‘business days’ rather than ‘calendar days.’
‘If it is determined by business days, which it should be, then we would have been in on time Monday,’ said Tosti-Vasey.
The board was not clear if the five-day window period should be counted as calendar days or business days, and recessed the meeting to discuss the issue with the county solicitor. Upon its return, the board announced on the advice of the solicitor to count the days as calendar days, thus setting the deadline of Nov. 22 and disqualifying the petitions.
Chairman Commissioner Michael Pipe said, however, that all the efforts of Vote PA and Concerned Voters of Centre County don’t have to go unrecognized.
‘There is still another avenue you can take with this,’ said Pipe. ‘You can still petition the court of common pleas for a recount. There’s still plenty of time to do that.’
Tosti-Vasey said after the meeting that she understood the deadline was Monday, and it was a mistake on their part.
‘We just see the whole date thing different,’ she said.
She said she was not sure if a petition would be filed with the courts.
‘We need to talk to our legal people and see where we can go from here,’ said Tosti-Vasey.
The 32 Centre County precincts where petitions for recounts were filed include Bellefonte North, Bellefonte South, Bellefonte West, State College North, State College North East, State College South, State College South East, State College South Central, State College West, Unionville Borough, Benner South, College North, College South, College East, Ferguson North 1, Ferguson North 2, Ferguson Northeast 1, Ferguson Northeast 2, Ferguson East, Ferguson West, Halfmoon Proper, Harris West, Huston, Patton North 1, Patton North 2, Patton South 1, Patton South 2, Patton South 3, Ferguson North 3, Ferguson West Central, Halfmoon East Central and Ferguson North Central.
