HOLLIDAYSBURG — The request to recount ballots cast in November at an Altoona precinct has been denied for lack of a $50 payment in compliance with the state’s election code.

Blair County President Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle handed down the recent decision to address a petition filed by three residents of Altoona’s 2nd Ward, 1st Precinct.

Collectively, the residents asked for a hand-count of votes cast in the Senate and gubernatorial races in their precinct to see if the results matched the county’s machine-counted votes.

While the residents offered no evidence of fraud, petitioner Steven Gilbert told Doyle in a recent court hearing that he thought there might be errors.

Doyle, during the hearing, confirmed that the petition was submitted to the prothonotary’s office without the deposit of $50 cash or a $100 bond, addressed in the state’s election code, although a $102 filing fee was paid.

While petitioners told Doyle they could make the $50 deposit immediately after the hearing, Doyle’s recent ruling indicated that a late payment is only allowed if the petitioners received incorrect information from a government official. With no evidence of that, Doyle relied on a 2016 Commonwealth Court ruling, addressing a recount petition filed in Montgomery County, deeming the lack of a cash deposit to be a fatal error in considering a ballot recount petition.

“Faced with an identical situation … this court must make an identical ruling,” Doyle said, citing her obligation to follow the authority of a higher court.

The Commonwealth Court, to back up its 2016 ruling, quoted a 1980 decision by the state Supreme Court, describing “full compliance with statutory bonding requirements” as protection of the election process.

Attorney R. Thomas Forr, who represented the Altoona petitioners in Doyle’s court, said he understood the judge’s decision.

“The judge has to follow the law, and it looks like she did in this case,” Forr said. “I can’t offer any challenges.”

As for whether another recount petition will be filed after a future Blair County election, Forr said there’s no guarantee of that. But he acknowledged an interest in closer examination of the results.

“It will come up again somewhere,” Forr said.

As of Dec. 1, the state had identified 147 petitions for ballot recounts in 41 counties, with many being dismissed for procedural reasons, Spotlight PA recently reported.

Doyle’s ruling mentioned that in Forest and Warren counties, judges dismissed the requests for recounts because the petitioners provided “no particular act of fraud or error” in support of their requests.

On Wednesday in Somerset County, a judge dismissed a petition seeking a precinct recount after deeming the petition to be late. Because Somerset County’s board of elections finished counting votes on Nov. 18, Judge Scott Bittner concluded that the petition had to be filed by Nov. 23 to meet the five-day window designated for the recount request. The petition before him was filed Nov. 28.

Bittner also noted that the petitioners in his county also sought more than a recount. They also asked for a forensic analysis of the voting machines’ software and media to determine if they were hacked or tampered with. The judge said that would require a petition to challenge the election, supported by five petitioners and not three on the submitted petition.

Forr said that the Altoona petitioners from the 2nd Ward, 1st Precinct were interested in a closer examination of the votes cast in their precinct. Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro each received 80 votes out of

165 ballots cast. Both of those candidates won that precinct — by a few votes over their Republican competitors — in a precinct that Gilbert told Doyle has been a predominately Republican precinct.

At the same hearing, Randy Eckman of Roaring Spring also spoke of his research, showing five or six additional predominately Republican precincts inside Blair County providing more support for Fetterman and Shapiro.

County solicitor Nathan Karn told Doyle that because the petitioners from the 2nd Ward, 1st Precinct were asking for a recount of votes cast for candidates in statewide offices, their request for a recount would extend to those races in all 93 precincts in the county. The exception, Karn said, would be if the petitioners can point to a “specific act or fraud of error” within their precinct.

Doyle didn’t address Karn’s position in her ruling and noted that Commonwealth Court, in its 2016 ruling dismissing the Montgomery County petition for lack of a cash deposit or bond, also didn’t address the position of recounting ballots in every election district.

Those interested in further review of the votes cast by county residents in November’s election will find them posted at www.blairco.org, accessible via a link to “Election Results.”

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