Nov 7, 2012 2 min read

Pete Daley won by more than 1,000 votes late Tuesday, but the votes of Donegal Township’s 3rd precinct weren’t part of the total.

Some sort of malfunction caused the wrong candidate’s name to appear on the ballot in that precinct. Instead of voting for Daley or Republican Richard Massafra, those casting ballots saw the name of Democrat Jesse White, who was unopposed for re-election in the 46th District.

Larry Spahr, Washington County director of elections, said he was not sure what caused the error, which was discovered Tuesday afternoon.

“Somebody called (the elections office) late this afternoon,” Spahr said.

“We used the same database as the primary. It was correct,” he said. He said he removed unsuccessful candidates from the primary database, and possibly something could have shifted. He said the database was proofed, but not for district assignments.

“We will have to take a look at it,” he said.

Had the race been extremely close, the missing votes from that precinct could have become an issue.

Former West Alexander Mayor Charlie Coffield called the Observer-Reporter regarding the issue and said he contacted the county election office after 8 p.m. to report the glitch but had not heard back.

“I’m very upset that I didn’t get a chance to vote for state representative,” he said.

Coffield said he was out to dinner with his wife after voting at about 7:30 p.m. when he realized something was wrong. He returned to the polling station as officials were closing up shop, asked to see a ballot and noticed the mistake.

The precinct has 184 registered voters.

Staff writer Andy McNeil contributed to this report.