State recount forces Westmoreland commissioners to relocate public meetings

Westmoreland commissioners are likely to relocate two scheduled public meetings next week to accommodate a state-ordered recount in the race to fill one of two seats on the state’s Commonwealth Court.

Democrat Lori Dumas held a small lead over Republican Drew Crompton, by just 16,804 votes as of earlier this week, to secure a spot on Commonwealth Court. Dumas is a judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, while Crompton is already an appointee to the bench.

In Pennsylvania, a recount is automatically triggered when the margin is 0.5% or less. As of Wednesday, the margin in the race was 0.33%.

Westmoreland’s part of the statewide recount will be conducted in the commissioners’ meeting room at the courthouse starting on Nov. 17.

“We expect it to take three days, minimum,” said Greg McCloskey, acting director of Westmoreland’s election bureau.

Elections staff will rerun each of the more than 88,000 ballots cast Nov. 2 through a new counting machine that will be loaned to the county from Elections Systems and Software, the Nebraska company that sold Westmoreland its voting equipment in 2019, McCloskey said.

McCloskey said the county is not permitted to use the same equipment for the recount than was used to tally the votes earlier this month.

The paper ballots, securely stored the election, that were generated from voting machines used at the county’s 307 voting precincts will be recounted as will nearly 17,000 mail-in ballots received.

Costs associated with the recount are expected to paid for by the state, McCloskey said.

With the commissioners’ meeting room being used for the recount, county officials scrambled Friday afternoon to relocate the two public meetings scheduled for next week, including the general business session on Nov. 18 in which commissioners are expected to present the 2022 budget.

Chief Clerk Vera Spino said a final decision on when and where that meeting will be conducted won’t be made until Monday.

A public meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 16 to review items up for consideration at Thursday’s voting session, was moved to a conference room near the commissioners’ offices on the first floor of the courthouse, Spino said.