After the post-election canvas of votes revealed a tie between Williamsport City Council candidates Republican Eric Beiter and Democrat April Line, the winner of the seat will be determined with a drawing as dictated by state law, according to Forrest Lehman, Lycoming County director of elections.
Although the election was held over a week ago, additional ballots were expected via mail. The deadline for those ballots typically is seven days after the election, which would have been Nov. 11. Due to the Veterans Day holiday, however, the deadline was moved to Nov. 12….
While Lehman noted Wednesday morning that one overseas military ballot cast in the city’s election had not arrived, he confirmed late afternoon that the ballot had missed the deadline required by state law.
Lehman stressed that this is not a thing “where the voter can decide at the last minute — that they’re going to come in and drop off the ballot.”
“A military or overseas voter has to have signed an affirmation stating they put their ballot in the mail before Election Day,” he explained.
The reason the ballot is given seven days to arrive is because some military ballots come from service people who have been deployed to remote locations or from overseas voters who are mailing ballots via foreign mail.
Because the ballot did not arrive, the state election code’s protocol for ties must be followed.
Lehman stressed that he doesn’t make up the rules governing this.
“It’s not a Williamsport thing or Lycoming County thing. This is how every county in the state does it when there are tie votes,” he said.