Northeastern Pa. gets a clear look at fall matchups

Residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania got a clearer picture of the political battles they’ll witness in the fall – even if one county continued a trend of struggles running its election. 

U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-8th District, will face a rematch against Republican Jim Bognet, whom he beat by nearly 4 points in 2020. Cartwright’s margin of victory has shrunk in recent elections, though. In 2018, he won by nearly 10 percent. 

Cartwright has spent this term as the chairman of an appropriations subcommittee and has been a big advocate of bringing expanded rail to the region. Bognet could benefit from the redistricting.

Allison Lucarelli won the Democratic primary for the 118th House District and will face James May in November in what could be a close race, according to unofficial tallies. 

The winner will replace long-term state Rep. Mike Carroll D-Luzerne, in a district that see-sawed from one side of Scranton to another on the swivel of Pittston.  

Democrat Kyle Donahue, a former member of the Scranton Board of Education, won the race for the 113th House District against Patrick Flynn, unofficial tallies showed. It’s a democratic stronghold.

The recent tradition of Luzerne County having issues on and just before election day continued Tuesday.

Because of a lack of staffing, the county had to stop counting mail-in votes Tuesday and will wrap up the tabulations Wednesday.

Denise Williams, the county’s chairperson for the board of elections, told WBRE-TV that COVID-19 issues led to staffing problems at polling places.

WNEP-TV’s Elizabeth Worthington detailed two issues she confirmed today on Twitter. The first issue, according to your report, started with a man who was dropping off a “naked” ballot, then tore it up when he was told it needed to be in the security envelope.

She reported another issue in which someone was dropping off other people’s ballots. That’s not allowed without a document from the state that says you can.

Last week, the county had to change a polling place in Harvey’s Lake, “(d)ue to unforeseen circumstances.”