Today marks four weeks from the Nov. 8 General Election, and there are still several counties struggling with certifying their results, even though Nov. 28 was the deadline for doing so.

One of the counties involved in one of the most high-profile issues was Luzerne, but election board members finally certified the vote last week after previously deadlocking. Two had voted “yes,” two “no,” and one abstained. Board member Daniel Schramm, who cast the abstention on Nov. 28, finally voted “yes” two days after the state deadline. He changed his vote, he said, after several of his lingering questions were answered.

If you were a Luzerne County taxpayer, you would probably be shaking your head wondering how a county of 326,000 could run out of paper voting supplies for its citizens. It was as if suddenly a light went off, and election officials said, “Oh, wait, we have an election coming up; are we supplied to handle what promises to be a significant turnout?”

The situation was so dire on Election Day that some voters were turned away from their polling places and told to return later when the machines were restocked with paper verification materials. A judge even granted a request to keep the polls open until 10 p.m. on Nov. 8, two hours after the normal deadline.

An overflow crowd jammed into the Wilkes-Barre council chambers with some clamoring not to certify the vote. Already two days late, board member Schramm pointed out that under state law and in accordance with the state constitution, the board had to certify the election just as Congress must certify the Electoral College by a deadline to select the president of the United States.

Fortunately, the angry members of the audience did not sack council chambers as the “stop the steal” rioters did to our beautiful Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president.

Members of the audience were incredulous that such a basic commodity as paper was not readily available for the election. You can’t blame those who question the legitimacy of elections when such bizarre and inexplicable things occur. One county resident said running out of paper is like not having enough ingredients to bake a cake properly.

Many county residents said this issue will not go away, and they want an explanation as to how something so basic like this could occur.

Meanwhile, the state instructed counties to certify their elections unless any contest was subject to a “legally valid” recount request and filing.

Such an 11th hour request came from three Lehigh County residents who were seeking a hand recount for several contests in Upper Saucon Township. County Judge Thomas Capehart dismissed the petition because he ruled that there were no corroborating facts to back up the allegations.

Berks County election officials have also not certified the vote because of some lingering issues being litigated now. The Berks County Republican Committee has asked multiple precincts to recount their ballots by hand, claiming voting machines switched votes from Republican to Democratic candidates. This baseless claim is sheer nonsense.

“A recount is only an investigation,” Committee Chair Clay Breece wrote in a statement. “We are asking for a court order to open the ballot boxes so the paper ballots are manually counted by humans to verify that the machines are working as advertised.” Berks County has challenged the recount request in the county court of common pleas.

The Berks’ suit was one of many filed throughout the state, including in Bucks, Forest and Lebanon counties to name a few.

Allegheny County has certified its vote with the exception of several precincts where voting issues have arisen, and the election board meeting in Pittsburgh is trying to resolve them as quickly as possible.

Election-denier supporters of failed GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano have been flooding the courts in multiple counties seeking a recount. These reckless actions come despite the Franklin County state senator having lost the governor’s race won by Democrat Josh Shapiro by more than 14% and nearly 800,000 votes. To his credit, Mastriano conceded, but his supporters believe the results are inaccurate and are flooding the courts to seek hand recounts under an obscure state election law provision.

These obstructionist tactics only further undermine the confidence that the public has in our free elections system. There should be a financial penalty assessed against any individual or group for what is ultimately considered a frivolous suit that ties up the courts unnecessarily.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com