(WE) – The chief prosecutor in a Pennsylvania county is investigating problems in a local election that involved machines from Dominion Voting Systems.
Sam Sanguedolce, the district attorney of Luzerne County, opened the inquiry after the local council voted last week to ask his office to investigate the May 18 primary election after voting machines failed to display Republican ballots.
“In this case, our goal is really to determine what the facts are and release more facts if, in fact, criminal conduct didn’t occur so that the public can be reassured. These are the facts we found, this is what was supposed to happen, and this is what you need to know,” Sanguedolce told WBRE/WYOU-TV.
Luzerne County residents, particularly Republicans, raised concerns after electronic ballots were only labeled for the Democratic primary on the screen.
“The Republican Party voters have been disenfranchised. We have multiple complaints that have gone through to us saying they didn’t get a chance to vote. They didn’t feel confident with the voting process,” said Luzerne County Republican Party Chairman Justin Behrens.
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The printed ballots, however, were labeled correctly, and the Board of Elections in Luzerne County, located in northeast Pennsylvania, said every vote was counted correctly, according to Fox 56.
Still, the county council opted to request an investigation as questions remain after Nicole Nollette, the executive vice president of operations at Dominion, blamed the mishap on “human error” during a two-hour special meeting on Monday, breaking with County Director of Elections Bob Morgan, who earlier said a “coding error” was to blame.
The resolution, as described by the Times Leader, asked the district attorney to look into Dominion’s practices and procedures and the election board’s actions in overseeing and maintaining the security of election equipment.
“We investigate to determine whether there is criminal wrongdoing or not,” Sanguedolce said. “I think it’s as important for people that a crime occurred as it is for them to know a crime did not occur. Mistakes happen. Unfortunately, this election seems to have been wrought with problems, so we’re going to look into it and hopefully improve this for the future. This just can’t continue. The people need to have faith in our voting system and integrity of the elections.”
Morgan declined to comment to WBRE/WYOU-TV. In addition, Dominion declined to comment, citing the pending investigation. The Washington Examiner also reached out to the company for comment.
Sanguedolce, a Republican who was first assistant district attorney, took on the top county prosecutor job earlier this year after the prior district attorney, Stefanie Salavantis, resigned to run for county judge. Earlier this month, the Luzerne County Council voted to seek a court ruling on whether the district attorney’s race should be on the general election ballot in November as opposed to waiting until the 2023 primary.
Dominion was subject to a wave of accusations of rigging the 2020 election, even as federal and state election officials insisted there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
The company filed multiple defamation lawsuits after the November contest, citing claims about its technology that caused “irreparable” damage to Dominion’s name and reputation, including a $1.3 billion suit against Rudy Giuliani (President Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer), a similar suit against lawyer Sidney Powell, and a $1 billion suit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who countersued.
At the end of March, an attorney for Dominion declined to rule out that Trump could be sued next
washingtonexaminer.com/news/pennsylvania-county-district-attorney-investigating-election-problems-dominion-machines
