Westmoreland officials seek answers for Mt. Pleasant Township ballot error

Westmoreland County elections officials on Monday continued to piece together how the race for a district judge’s seat was excluded from mail-in ballots sent to voters last week in four Mt. Pleasant Township precincts.

“It’s my responsibility,” Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said of the oversight that led to 189 incorrect ballots being mailed to voters in advance of the May 18 primary.

Sebastiani, who took over the top elections bureau job last summer, said no one in her office was aware that a court-ordered redistricting of the county’s district courts, signed into law in October, eliminated one seat, shifted boundary lines and moved four Mt. Pleasant Township precincts into the jurisdiction served by retiring District Judge Mike Mahady in Unity.

Officials said 189 voters in the township’s Ridgeview, Mammoth, United and Westmoreland Homestead precincts were sent ballots that excluded the district judge race between Assistant Public Defender Tamara Mahady and behavioral health caseworker Rebecca Salandro, who are running on both the Republican and Democratic slates.

County leaders learned of the error May 7, after an initial batch of mail-in ballots was sent to voters.

Sebastiani said elections staffers have spent the past three days attempting to reach those voters by telephone to inform them of the error.

As of Monday, only one of the incorrect ballots from the township had been returned, county Commissioner Sean Kertes said.

The county printed updated ballots that will be sent Tuesday by overnight mail to voters who received the incorrect ballots. The mailing of all ballots to township voters was halted late last week after officials were notified by voters about the error. Routine mailing of corrected ballots will resume this week.

The deadline to apply for absentee and mail-in ballots is Tuesday.

Officials said voting machines at each of the four township precincts on May 18 were reprogrammed to ensure the district judge’s race appears on the ballot.

Commissioners, who serve as the county’s elections board, said an investigation will be conducted to determine how the error occurred.

“After we got through all the problems in 2020, we thought this should have been a simple year,” Kertes said.

Commissioners on Monday transferred public works director Greg McCloskey to serve temporarily as the election bureau’s deputy director to work with Sebastiani and help with logistics relating to next week’s primary. The department’s deputy position has been vacant since last fall.

A video with McCloskey and the county commissioners was posted late Monday afternoon on the county’s website to update plans to send out corrected ballots and to announce that a drop box that will be installed this weekend in the township.

Commissioners said the drop box will be added at Mammoth Park to help ensure mail-in ballots are returned to the courthouse by the 8 p.m. deadline on May 18. McCloskey said in the video that preliminary plans call for the drop box to be open from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

Candidates for district judge lobbied county officials over the weekend for a quick response to correct the ballot.

“I do believe it was a complete mistake, and I have complete faith they will remedy this,” Salandro said.

Mahady said she informed county elections officials about the new boundary lines in February when she requested street lists of registered voters and saw that the four township precincts were not among those in the redrawn court district.

“I am very worried, and I’m asking for a supplemental ballot (to) be issued. Time is of the essence,” Mahady said.

State elections officials advised against issuing a supplemental ballot for the district judge’s race, according to county elections staff.