Mixup leads to miscast ballots in Phoenixville

WEST CHESTER It didn't affect the outcomes, and officials promise the problem will be fixed by next month's election, but 127 Phoenixville voters ended up casting votes in the wrong legislative race in the May primary, the county Board of Elections said Tuesday.

Candidates could have challenged the 127 votes that were mistakenly cast in the 157th District in May, but candidates in both districts ran unopposed.

Leo J. Scoda, chair of the Phoenixville Democratic Committee and former Phoenixville mayor, said the error could have been a factor in the general election, in which Democrat Marian Moskowitz is challenging Rep. Warren Kampf (R., Chester/Montgomery).

After the 2010 Census, the state set new legislative districts and informed the county that all of Phoenixville's north voting wards would be in the 155th, and all other wards the 157th, officials said.

But Phoenixville created a new ward based on population growth that mistakenly was placed into the 157th.

Common Pleas Judge Robert J. Shenkin, a member of the Elections Board, said it was important to fix the problem now lest voters be disenfranchised.

- Michaelle Bond