Gary Orben

By Jim Davis

MILFORD — Pike County officials, looking into results of the primary election held last Spring, found an alarming number of mistakes which they say should result in seven individuals being added to this November’s ballots.

The county has filed papers in the Pike County Court of Common Pleas as the first step in conducting a recanvass of the vote. According to Director of Elections Gary Orben, only write-in votes from municipal elections were considered in the court filing.

The county performed an internal investigation into the vote count prompted primarily by a snafu involving Lehman Township resident Michael Meachem’s write-in campaign for the position of township auditor.

After initially being informed by the county that he had won a slot on the November ballot, Meachem received a second correspondence more than a week later notifying him that he had not won a ballot spot.

The county commissioners, who also comprise the county’s board of elections, said that the miscommunication came about as a result of two voting districts in Lehman Township not having been added together during the canvass. When results from the two districts were eventually totaled, after someone noticed the mistake, Meachem did not have enough votes.

The situation surrounding Meachem was one of the factors involved in former Director of Elections Yolanda Goldsack first seeking a transfer to a different county job, and ultimately leaving the county’s employment.

According to Orben, Meachem’s predicament prompted the county to perform an internal reassessment of the write-in votes.

Court documents filed by the county at the end of July indicate that a number of mistakes were unearthed.

“The Pike County Board of Elections has now determined that many errors have taken place,” according to the papers filed by the county’s solicitor, Tom Farley.

The filing goes on to note that, though votes were properly counted, they were not placed in the Results Book, which now needs to be recertified.

The Board of Elections submits that the “court should strike the original certification of election results, and direct a recanvass of all write-in votes cast…”

Any individuals who received votes in the election needed to be informed of the recanvass, so they can either be present or oppose the petition for it. A subsequent paper filed by Farley indicates that all concerned parties have been notified by mail.

A hearing to determine the court’s jurisdiction on the matter is scheduled for Aug. 17 at 1:30 PM. A further hearing will be held on Aug. 31 at 1:30 PM, at which time the recanvass will either take place, or a date will be set for it.

According to the filing, the following individuals, who otherwise would have been excluded, should appear on the November ballot: Jeanine Tenzi, on the Republican side, for tax collector in Blooming Grove; Larry Koch, on the Republican side, for constable in Blooming Grove; Mary Lou Corbett, on the Republican side, for tax collector in Delaware Township No. 1; Frances James, on the Democratic side, for tax collector in Lackawaxen Township No. 1; Matthew Osterberg, on the Democratic side, for councilman in Milford Borough; Robert Gallagher, on the Democratic side, for constable in Shohola; and Laurie Pearce, on the Democratic side, for tax collector in Westfall.