The Blair County Election Board on Thursday afternoon approved the counting of 65 provisional ballots cast during the General Election that had initially been rejected because whatever mistakes were made to disqualify the ballots were made by poll workers and not voters.

A.C. Stickel, the Blair County Controller who serves on the board, said that he absolutely believes in enforcing the “letter of the law,” but in the situation involving the provisional ballots, the voters did nothing wrong, and therefore, he said, their votes should count.

Another member of the board, county Commissioner Laura Burke, said, “We have the feeling that when someone makes an effort to vote, their vote should be allowed.”

The vote, she indicated, should not be rejected because of a third party mistake.

The third member of the board, Craig Swineford, the county’s director of Veterans Affairs, made the decision to count the ballots unanimous when he said: “I see it as the voter did nothing wrong.”

He said there were so many new people serving on the precinct election boards, and he did not believe there was evidence of fraud.

“The votes should be processed,” he said.

The decision to count the ballots was made during an unusual public hearing — voters who were notified that their provisional ballots had been rejected were invited to a public meeting of the board and asked if they had any comments.

Deborah Frazier-Garman of Williamsburg said she received a mail-in ballot — something she did not want.

“I didn’t know what to do with it,” so she went to her polling place and filed a provisional ballot.

When she was informed it didn’t count, she was upset.

The problem was that the envelopes containing the provisional ballots are to be signed by the majority inspector and a minority inspector on the precinct election board.

In the case of Frazier-Garman, that did not happen.

The provisional ballot cast by Nancy Scott of Bellwood also lacked the proper signatures and she urged a poll worker to provide the required signature that would allow her ballot to count.

The poll worker she talked to said he would sign it later, but that didn’t happen and she was informed that her vote would not count.

Her argument was, “If I didn’t do anything wrong, it should count.”

Lois Kaneshiki of Duncansville agreed with Scott and Frazier-Garman that the voter should make sure the ballot papers are signed before leaving the polls.

Provisional ballots are issued when a voter, for instance, goes to the wrong polling precinct and is told they are not registered.

In this year’s presidential election, provisional ballots were issued to those who received mail-in ballots but decided later to vote in person.

Blair County solicitor Nathan Karn explained just how unusual this election year was.

In Blair County, more than 900 provisional ballots were issued — more than twice the number that had ever been issued.

“It greatly exceeds the (highest) number we ever had,” he said. The election saw a record turnout of voters, he said.

On top of the large numbers, many veteran election workers decided not to volunteer because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, there were a record number of absentee and mail-in ballots.

The rejection of the 65 mail-in ballots was challenged by the Biden campaign, but, as it turned out, the Blair County Election Board didn’t need to be persuaded to include the rejected ballots in the final totals.

Attorney Phil S. Consentino of Chambersburg, representing the campaign, stated the type of public hearing that occurred in Blair County was a first in the Commonwealth.

“Everybody has come together and did the right thing for the right reason,” he concluded.