Paper ballots return to Beaver County

Thursday, May 05, 2005
By Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It's a nightmare no one in Beaver County wants to repeat.

In November 1993, the voters chose Joe Zupsic to man the Center Township district justice office.

Or maybe they didn't.

Zupsic was originally declared the winner, with 36 more votes than Delores Laughlin. Laughlin petitioned for a hand recount, which yielded an 82-vote swing in her favor.

Zupsic appealed. The county court concluded that ballots had been tampered with and called for a new election. Both candidates appealed.

The state Supreme Court ordered the local court to determine which ballots should be counted for whom. The county did, and declared Zupsic the winner. Laughlin appealed. The state Supreme Court denied the appeal.

Zupsic was finally sworn in five years after the election. He demanded, and got, back pay. Of course, the county had been paying senior judge Peter LoSchiavo to handle his duties.

Add in legal costs and the costs of an ultimately fruitless fraud investigation, and the bill for the fiasco reached roughly $400,000, said County Commissioners' Chairman Dan Donatella.

No one was ever charged, but investigators believe someone got into the ballot boxes between the machine count on election night and the hand recount a month later, marked enough ballots to change the outcome and resealed the boxes so no one would know.

The case was one of the major reasons Beaver County opted for an electronic voting system in 1998.

"It was huge, huge," Donatella said. "There was a huge public outcry about this fraud and tampering."

Now Beaver County and Mercer and Greene counties are going back to paper ballots. After complaints about anomalies in last year's presidential elections, the state found problems with the system the counties were using, and decertified it last month.

Donatella is not happy. "The paper ballot to me is the most fraudulent way" to vote, he said. "It is the easiest to manipulate."

In the Zupsic-Laughlin case, the manipulation took the form of new pencil marks on 45 ballots identified by the Beaver County court, marks that were "inconsistent" with other markings on the ballots lighter, or darker, or lines instead of filled-in ovals.

This time, pencils will not be used. Beaver County elections director Dorene Mandity said there will be felt-tip markers attached inside the voting booths for voters to use.

That's only one of many precautions being taken in this gun-shy county.

Mandity and county commissioner Joe Spanik, who oversees elections, said poll workers will hand instruction sheets to each voter, and the instructions will also be posted inside the booths.

Chief among the instructions: If you make a mistake, ask for a new ballot and start over. Don't try to correct it. Also, ovals are to be filled in completely, not marked with an "X" or check mark. Mandity said the scanning machines would stop on any improperly marked ballot, so the ballots can be set aside and counted by hand.

Voters will be instructed to slide their ballots inside sleeves that leave only a stub showing. A poll worker will tear off that stub to serve as a receipt, and the covered ballot will go in the box.

The boxes are the same ones used until 1998 they've been in storage since. At the end of the night, they will have seals placed over their slots and poll workers will drive them to the courthouse.

At the courthouse, sheriff's deputies will observe as the boxes are carried to a basement room where the scanners will be set up. They will be scanned and resealed, and will be stored in a room with security cameras and one key a key in Mandity's possession.

Mandity said the machine tally will be posted on the Internet, but no computers at the courthouse will be available for public viewing discouraging the old tradition of coming to the courthouse to watch the vote totals come in.

Overall, Mandity is confident that the process will be secure though she's sure it will take longer than the computerized vote, especially since ballots that won't scan will be counted by hand.

"I'm spoiled," she said. "I'm just beside myself that we have to hand-count ballots."

One of he big fears proved groundless, though she was afraid she would lose poll workers unwilling to go back to the old ways. In fact, she lost only two.

"They've been really great, really supportive," she said.

"All we're worried about is the integrity of everybody's vote being counted," Spanik said. "We want to make sure that happens."

Ironically, a number of those votes will be for Laughlin she is now married to district judge John Armour, who is retiring from his New Brighton post, and is running as Delores Armour to take his place.

If anyone votes for Zupsic, however, it will be as a write-in. Rightfully elected or not, his tenure was a troubled one. He's been on sick leave since August, announced he would not seek re-election this year, and in February was charged with misconduct in five cases.

The state judicial conduct board claims he showed leniency to the relatives of his friends in several cases and in one case asked a state trooper to be lenient toward a suspect.