Butler County Board of Elections workers count ballots in a conference room at the Butler County Government Center in Butler in July. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

One discrepancy has been found in 2020 election ballots from two of the three precincts selected for the county’s review of vote-counting procedures, and the review could come to an end without reviewing ballots from the third precinct.

Since the review began July 27, the recount of ballots from the Butler City 4-1 precinct has been completed and the review of the Donegal Township precinct is expected to be completed Thursday.

So far, only one discrepancy has been found. On one Donegal Township ballot, a voter didn’t properly fill in one circle to vote for a candidate, said county solicitor Wil White, who is serving as the county’s interim director of elections and overseeing the review.

The voter attempted to fill in the circle, but his or her marking was outside the circle. That voter correctly completed the rest of the ballot, but that one sloppy vote counts as an “undervote,” White said.

The undervote was found during the hand count of the ballots in the review, and the vote was counted for the candidate, but the ballot scanning machine did not detect that vote, White said.

That undervote would have been found in a hand count in a state-mandated recount, he said.

All votes on each ballot are reviewed and counted by hand by county election bureau staff and a group of five to eight people, and then each ballot is scanned by the machine before the results are compared. The people working with bureau staff are election judges, inspectors and other people connected to elections. They are being paid $11 an hour for the review.

For several reasons, White said, he is recommending that county commissioners end the review without looking at the Middlesex Township ballots.

The commissioners, who returned Aug. 4 from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania’s annual convention, haven’t yet decided on whether to complete the review.

White said the commissioners allotted three weeks to review ballots from all three precincts, and that time period ends Friday. Reviewing the 2,000 ballots from the Middlesex Township precinct would take four or five days, and extend into next week, he said.

Another reasons is that the election bureau has to begin preparing for the November election, he said.

In addition, he said the review has provided a lot of information about the staffing, time and resources it takes to conduct hand counts.

“I now know we can get through on average 500 to 600 votes a day if we’re pushing it,” White said.

Ballots are divided into batches of 100 for the review. It takes between 50 minutes and an 80 minutes to review each batch, he said.

A minimum of four people is needed for hand counts, and the UL conference room in the Government Center Annex is large enough for the review, he said.

The review also provided lessons for poll workers. They should properly label the boxes the ballots are placed in, and remind voters to completely fill in the circles on ballots, he said.

This story was updated at 2:30 pm, 8/12/2022 to reflect this change: Butler County solicitor Wil White said 500 to 600 votes a day could be counted in a review of votes cast in the 2020 election. An article in Thursday’s paper incorrectly stated 5,000 to 6,000 votes could be counted in a day.