Pennsylvania county’s Election Day paper shortage was an ’embarrassment,’ says local GOP chairman

The Election Day paper shortage in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is escalating tensions as the elections board looks for answers. 

Several Luzerne County polling locations were not equipped with sufficient paper supplies on Election Day, causing extensive wait times. 

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Some polling places also did not have sufficient supplies of paper provisional ballots. “This is beyond politics,” Luzerne County Republican Party Chairman Patrick Pribula told the elections board on Nov. 8, according to local outlet the Times Leader.

Due to the confusion, a local judge ordered polls in the county to stay open until 10 p.m.

Pribula reportedly called the confusion an “embarrassment” and damaging to people’s trust in the system.

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The election board will be investigating the source of the paper shortage as it continues adjudicating ballots. 

The board has already thrown out ballots found uncountable due to a variety of factors, including a lack of a required secrecy envelope, lack of handwritten dates and dates outside the mail-in voting period.

So far, there is no indication that the process will throw any election results into question.