Approximately 60 voters in Banks Township and Beaver Meadows who requested mail-in ballots for the upcoming election will have to recast their votes. Two names were omitted on the ballot for the Hazleton Area School District race.

On Thursday, Commissioner Chris Lukasevich, member of the county election board, read a prepared statement by the board on the matter.

In the statement, Lukasevich said that the two precincts are within the Hazleton School District and need to vote on that race; however, Carmella Yenkevich and Tony Bonomo’s names were not on the ballot. Yenkevich is one of seven candidates seeking a four-year term on the board; while Bonomo is seeking a two-year term.

The Carbon Election Bureau is now in the process of correcting the ballots and has notified the affected mail-in voters of the issue.

A total of 39 voters in Banks Township and 23 voters in Beaver Meadows were affected by this error.

Lukasevich said that Dominion Voting is now updating the two voting machines for the election, which will be held Tuesday; and Phoenix Graphics has reprinted the ballots for those two precincts.

In addition, election workers drove the ballots to the respective post offices and have spoken to the regional postmaster, who said these ballots will not be sent to a regional distribution center, and instead delivered directly to the recipients.

Lukasevich said that voters were also notified about the ballot issue and made aware that if they already submitted a ballot, they will need to recast their votes and resubmit the ballot by Tuesday, or go to their respective precinct to cast a vote.

Affected voters should receive the new ballots today.

The problem came to light Tuesday following an advertisement posting the candidates was published in various newspapers.

At that time, Yenkevich noticed that her name had been omitted from the ballot advertisement.

It was also discovered that candidate Carol Makuta’s name, who is facing Bonomo, was listed twice under candidates vying for a two-year term, while Bonomo’s was not on it for that race.