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‘Just pure stupidity’: Officials from Luzerne County in Pennsylvania draw flak as voting machines run out of paper

A total of 44 county polling stations in the county were reportedly affected by the shortage of paper ballots, prompting an extension from 8 pm to 10 pm

LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: Many Pennsylvania voters, who went to vote in the midterm elections were held up on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, due to a lack of paper ballots at several polling stations. This led to the county’s voting deadline being extended from 8 pm to 10 pm under an emergency court order by Judge Lesa S Gelb of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. According to the director of the Office of Communications and Press for the Pennsylvania Department of State, a total of 44 county polling stations were affected by the shortage, prompting the extension, according to WGAL.

According to The Hill, Gelb, in a one-page order, said, “The constitutional right to vote requires an extension of the voting hours after Luzerne County voters through no fault of their own, were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote.” The order came after an emergency petition was filed by Luzerne County election officials, who described in court papers, "Upon arriving at the polling locations to set up machines on Election Day poll workers at the Luzerne County polling locations discovered that the voting machines were seriously deficient of paper to print out the ballot after the voter uses the machine to vote."

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However, the shortage received a lot of backlash from people. A social media user slammed the official and tweeted, "Luzerne County Pennsylvania had two years to prepare for this election and they ran out of paper before noon. Unbelievable."

Another wrote, "They ran out by like 9am and down to 1 machine. It was ridiculous." While one wrote, "The patriots of Luzerne County PA are not letting up! They stayed in line the entire time they were told there was no paper to run ballots."

Talking about the chaos, a reporter tweeted, "Running out of ballot paper is far worse than the great election day fiasco we covered in Luzerne County back in 2009: the results getting delayed because a poll worker stopped home first to make dinner for his mom."

"Of course. PA is once again among the usual suspects. How can you not have enough paper ballots for your voters? Just pure stupidity. Luzerne County went Republican in 2020 and has stayed that way ever since," wrote another.

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