Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown reaches agreement over primary write-in tallying

Republican write-in votes for Democratic Wilkes-Barre Mayor George C. Brown will be tallied, even if May 16 primary election voters did not shade in the oval next to the write-in box on the paper ballots, officials said during a court proceeding Thursday.

A court hearing was scheduled because local attorney Neil O’Donnell filed an emergency petition on Brown’s behalf attempting to force Luzerne County’s Election Board to tally all Republican write-in votes in that mayoral race, regardless of whether the oval next to the write-in box was shaded.

Based on legal advice, the county election board had taken the position that voters must both shade in the oval and write a name for a write-in to be accepted.

O’Donnell told the panel of county judges presiding over the election matter — Tina Polachek Gartley, Tarah Toohil and Stefanie Salavantis — that Brown had reached an agreement with the county election board and election bureau to resolve the matter after Brown’s emergency petition was filed Wednesday.

O’Donnell said the county agreed to review and tally all write-in votes for Brown, and attorneys representing the county election board and bureau confirmed that agreement before the judges.

The agreement applies only to Brown’s Republican write-in votes, the county attorneys stressed.

Wilkes-Barre City Councilman Tony Brooks attended the proceeding about his own write-in votes and was informed he would have to file a separate action because he was not a party to Brown’s court case.

There wasn’t much time to act.

The election board had reached its decision about how the write-ins would be tallied on Tuesday, and county Assistant Solicitor Paula Radick said there is a two-day deadline to challenge it, which meant all filings had to be in Thursday.

Brooks promptly contacted local Attorney Kimberly D. Borland, of Borland and Borland LLP, and said he filed a petition similar to Brown’s seeking the counting of all Democratic write-in votes without shaded ovals in the Wilkes-Barre City Council District B race.

Brooks ran unopposed on the Republican ballot in that district and received the party’s nomination with 182 votes, according to the unofficial results.

On the Democratic side, Mark Shaffer ran unopposed on the ballot and received 214 votes based on the unofficial count. However, Brooks ran a write-in campaign seeking the Democratic nomination, and at least 279 write-in votes were cast. If most write-ins are for Brooks, he stands to receive the Democratic nomination.

The total of 279 write-in votes is based only on those with the shaded ovals. No reports were compiled on how many more were cast without darkened ovals.

Brown is hopeful he will have enough write-in votes to receive the Republican nomination. He secured the Democratic nomination with 2,396 votes and had no opposition.

On the Republican side, Harry L. Cropp III appeared on the ballot with no Republican opposition and secured 453 votes, according to the unofficial results.

The county reported a total 363 write-in Republican votes in that race, which would only be the ones with ovals shaded.

“We still have to count the votes,” Brown said as he left the county courtroom.

O’Donnell said he appreciates the resolution and hopes it moves the election board to count write-in votes without the shaded ovals in other races.

“It’s the right thing to do,” O’Donnell said.

During the election board’s adjudication Thursday afternoon, county Assistant Solicitor Paula Radick advised the board against answering a question about whether it would consider expanding the tallying of write-ins without shaded ovals in other races.