UPDATE BELOW

Delaware County Republican Party Chairman Tom McGarrigle calls it a matter of incompetence on the county Board of Elections and wants the district attorney to launch an investigation. Reports are that multiple voter precincts in various municipalities ran out of Republican Party ballots even in the early afternoon hours, during Tuesday's primary election. There were no reports of a Democratic Party ballot shortage.

"I think it was pure incompetence on the part of the county election department," McGarrigle said in a telephone interview early Wednesday.

He said Ridley Park called for more ballots but had to call 22 times and needed to wait up to three hours to get extra ballots. It took Thornbury Township two hours to get more, as well.

"I've already called the district attorney for an investigation because this didn't happen in any Democrat precincts. The democrats didn't run out. It's simple math. If you look at the voter rolls and you know there are 500 Republicans [at a given precinct], you at least print 525 or 600 ballots," he said.

McGarrigle didn't say the shortage was deliberate but stressed it was incompetence on the part of the Board of Elections.

"I don't know if it was deliberate, but I sure think it was incompetent," he said. "I want the DA to investigate to see why it happened, to get some answers. We certainly can't have this. We had voters that were [angry] and disgusted waiting until 8:30 to vote for no reason…You certainly can't run elections this way."

John Crossan of Concord Township Council said multiple precincts in Concord ran out of ballots and that the county Republican Party was reporting ballot shortages in Thornbury, Media, and Springfield. Other municipalities: Haverford and Ridley Park, were on the verge of running out with more than an hour left before polls closed. Crossan later said there were shortages in Bethel Township, as well.

Mary Kot, the Republican Party leader in Chadds Ford, said there was no such problem in Chadds Ford.

A late-night online report from KYW News Radio said Delaware County acknowledged the shortage, saying there were more in-person voters than the county anticipated. The county said 6 percent of the precincts ran low or out of ballots but that voters could still vote using generated paper ballots using precinct equipment.

While most primaries are limited to participation to Democrats and Republicans. All registered voters were able to vote in this year’s primary because of the ballot questions. With more than 70 percent of state-wide precincts reporting, Pennlive.com is saying each of the questions passed with a yes vote.

Those questions include whether the state Constitution should be amended to allow the General Assembly to terminate or extend a disaster declaration. According to the report, that passed 53.6 percent to 46.4 percent.

The second question asked whether the Constitution should be changed to allow a disaster emergency declaration to expire automatically after 21 days, regardless of the severity of the emergency, unless the General Assembly takes action to extend the disaster emergency. That passed 53.58 to 46.42 percent.

Question three asked whether the Constitution should be changed to include wording that no person shall be denied equal rights under the law based on race or ethnicity. Pennlive reported that passed 71.48 percent to 28.82 percent.

The final question asked whether a voter approves expanding the use of the indebtedness authorized under the referendum for loans to volunteer fire companies, volunteer ambulance services, and volunteer rescue squads under 35 PA.C.S. §7378. to include loans to municipal fire departments or companies that provide services through paid personnel and emergency medical services companies. That, too, passed with a margin of 71.8 percent to 28.2 percent, according to Pennlive.com.

 

UPDATE: In a press release the county said: "The county's ballot order not only complied with the statutory requirements but exceed them. There was a higher in-person turnout of voters than expected during this Primary Election, which created a shortage of ballots. There are reports that turnout exceeded even those extra ballot orders in about 6 percent of the precincts.  At all times, however, registered voters were able to vote on precinct equipment that generated paper ballots and emergency ballots as the County worked to print and deliver more paper ballots. All registered voters were still able to vote, and no one was disenfranchised. The county regrets that some voters had longer wait times and will exceed the state requirements even more for the November election." END UPDATE

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