A former Lansford councilwoman who lost reelection by a slim margin in November believes there are operational and accountability issues in the Carbon County Elections Office.

Jennifer Staines believes she was denied a recount in an election that separated her and another candidate by fewer than 10 votes and then was told in error that she had won.

Staines hadn’t opened the brown envelope from the county certifying that she won, when Election Director Jennifer Ketchledge reached out to her to tell her that she didn’t win.

Worse, Ketchledge found the situation funny, Staines said.

“That department needs heavy reviews and retraining, and maybe reorganization,” she said.

Staines contacted county Commissioner Vice Chair Wayne Nothstein seeking some kind of accountability and plans to talk to all three commissioners today at their regular meeting.

Staines had originally requested a recount in the election on the Friday after the election, and Ketchledge told her that she couldn’t do that and directed her to the county prothonotary’s office to file forms, saying it was out of their hands.

Staines went to the prothonotary’s office the following Monday to get the forms to file for a recount, and was told to get herself a lawyer.

Prothonotary Kayla Semmel said that she wasn’t aware of this specific instance, but her office does not carry forms for a recount.

“It would be up to the party to obtain and most usually obtain them through an attorney,” she said.

Staines, who was unable to pursue the matter further at the time, said she later learned that she could have filed for a recount up to six weeks after the election.

Staines then pointed to the election issues in Weatherly, where the mayor’s position was not placed on the November ballot.

Elections officials said they weren’t notified of the vacancy following the resignation of Paul J. Hadzick in April, and borough officials said the county was indeed notified.

That led to council having to appoint one of their own to fill the vacancy, not once but twice. Voters should have elected someone in November to fill the remaining two years of the term.

Staines said she spoke to Weatherly officials, who called the situation “a nightmare.” She said that she was shocked that Ketchledge still had a job following repeated mistakes in her office.

Ketchledge did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Nothstein said that all three commissioners, the solicitor, and county administrator discussed the situation, and then met with Ketchledge to discuss how to prevent this from happening again.

“This is a personnel matter, and I cannot discuss the outcome,” he wrote in an email. “I assure (you) that proper actions were taken.”