Lackawanna County planned Monday to mail correct ballots to 545 Republican voters in Scranton who, due to a printer’s error, were recently sent ballots for the 2024 primary election instead of the upcoming primary May 20.
The GOP voters who received those incorrect ballots should discard or destroy them, county Election Director Beth Hopkins said.
County officials alerted the public to the error Saturday, noting in a news release that the company that printed the ballots “apparently selected the wrong Republican ballot file to print for Scranton voting precincts.” The 545 ballots in question were the only erroneous ballots of the more than 12,000 mailed to voters from both parties for the coming primary, Hopkins said in the release.
Reached Monday morning, Hopkins said the printing company, Election Systems & Software, reprinted correct ballots Saturday and sent them to Scranton from Alabama via a courier.
“We’re preparing all the new ballot packages today and they’ll go out in the mail by the end of today,” she said. “The corrected ballots that are going out in the mail today, their labels will be color-coded, so it will be identifiable to the staff when they come back that the voter actually returned the corrected ballot. The old ballot label that was sent with the incorrect ballot is going to be deactivated and canceled, so that label won’t even be scannable.”
Officials have a process in place to flag any incorrect ballots that may be returned, in which case those voters will be contacted and advised to submit the correct ballot, Hopkins and county election board Solicitor Donald Frederickson said. They’ll also segregate all returned Scranton Republican mail-in ballots, which will be run as a completely separate batch on election day, Hopkins said.
The county provided an email Monday from Election Systems & Software acknowledging its error. Because of the recent court case involving Republican Bob Bolus — who filed paperwork to run for Scranton mayor but was ultimately removed from the ballot following a challenge — Lackawanna County ballots were printed in two runs, with Scranton Republican ballots being sent after the majority of the county’s ballots were printed, the email states.
“During the printing process, an employee mistakenly pulled and printed a file from the 2024 election instead of the current 2025 election,” it states. “This human error in processing the files was missed in the quality check process. ES&S reviewed all other provisional and Election Day ballots to ensure that files were printed accurately.”
“ES&S apologizes to the county and affected voters for this human error,” the firm’s email states. “We are taking all necessary steps to enhance our internal review processes so this doesn’t occur in the future.”
County Republican Party Chairman Dan Naylor said in a Monday email to Hopkins that he knows the error was unintentional.
“I have full confidence in you leading the voter registration office and I know you will put in place (safeguards) so this does not happen again,” Naylor said.
In Scranton-specific races, city GOP voters will cast ballots for mayor, city council and school director.
Republicans Trish Beynon and Lynn Labrosky both seek the GOP nomination for mayor, while Marc A. Pane is the lone Republican candidate for city council to appear on GOP primary ballots. Those ballots also feature five Scranton School Board candidates — Jenna Strzelecki, Danielle Chesek, Julien M. Wells, John Howe and Joe Brazil — all of whom are cross-filed, meaning they seek both Republican and Democratic nominations.
Sample ballots are available online at lackawannacounty.org by clicking the elections and voter registration link under the government tab at the top of the site. Voters with questions or concerns can also call the county elections department at 570-963-6737.
Voters who opt not to return their ballots by mail can deposit them in any of six secure ballot drop boxes, located at the county government center in downtown Scranton, the Moosic, Dickson City, Clarks Summit and Roaring Brook Twp. municipal buildings and the Fallbrook Senior Community Center in Carbondale.
The government center drop box will remain available until 8 p.m. on May 20, the date of the primary. All the other drop boxes will be available until noon May 16.