HOLLIDAYSBURG — Three voters in a Blair County precinct are seeking a judicial order allowing a hand count of their precinct’s votes in the Nov. 8 gubernatorial and senate races.

While the voters — Steven Gilbert, Guido Santella and Deborah Santella — have no evidence of errors, attorney R. Thomas Forr said Monday in county court that the hand counting of 165 ballots from Altoona’s 2nd Ward, 1st Precinct would allow those voters to see if the results match the machine-counted votes, as reported by the county.

“We’re not saying there’s fraud here,” Forr told President Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle. “We’re just saying there’s potential for error.”

Election Board solicitor Nathan Karn told Doyle that because the petitioning voters asked for a hand count of votes in the gubernatorial and Senate races, their request should extend to all 93 precincts because those same races were on those ballots too.

“I don’t believe it would be appropriate to open the ballot box of just one precinct,” Karn said.

The solicitor also asked Doyle to dismiss the voters’ petition as too late because it’s beyond the deadline, set by the state, to ask for a recount.

Gilbert, who testified in favor of a recount of his precinct’s votes, told Doyle that he didn’t know if there were any errors in his city precinct’s vote totals, but he thought there might be.

“The simplest way (to find out) is to do a hand count,” Gilbert said.

Forr also called upon Randy Eckman of Roaring Spring to testify about his research identifying five or six precincts in the county that predominantly favored Republican candidates in 2020.

In the Nov. 8 election, Eckman said those same precincts supported a Democratic candidate or split their support between the Republican and Democratic candidates.

Karn challenged the use of that reasoning to order a recount.

“People can vote differently from one election to the next,” Karn said.

Doyle said she was willing to review rulings by judges in other counties that have received and answered similar petitions from their voters. Based on information in court, a Somerset County judge was reported to have ordered a recount using a different ballot-counting device than originally used.

Bedford County resident Karen Callihan, who attended Monday’s hearing in Blair County, said outside the courtroom that three petitions are pending there.

“This is a concern for people,” Callihan said. “So why not do the recount? It will either prove or disprove the numbers.”

Forr said that Stacey Kensinger, a volunteer with the Audit the Vote PA organization, paid the $102 fee that Blair County charged for the filing of a miscellaneous petition with the county court system.

Kensinger, in an email to the Mirror, said these kinds of citizen-initiated petitions are designed to increase transparency in elections.

Doyle pledged to review the materials and undertake her own research in answering the petition for the recount, as requested by the Blair County voters.

“It’s a very interesting and important question,” the judge said.

Doyle also advised that her pending decision would likely reflect any relevant rulings by the state appellate courts.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.