The Republican Party committees of Robinson and Allegheny County are claiming that poll watchers in three Robinson wards on Nov. 3 were denied the opportunity to observe absentee ballots being counted.

"We're waiting to get some more information from people who were at the polls, and then will see what we want to do," said Monica Douglas, executive director of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County.

The dispute involves 80 ballots, which could change the results for commissioner and create a GOP majority on the board.

"We have not conceded the election," Robinson Republican Committee Chair Linda Jakubec said. "We're going to continue to pursue it up the process. If we have to go to court, we will."

Republicans won two of the three seats. The question is whether having the 80 ballots thrown out could erase the 64-vote gap between Ron Shiwarski, the one Democrat elected, and Republican Jerry Brouker, who finished fourth.

Mr. Shiwarski got 186 absentee votes and fellow Democrats Steve Rozman and Earl Mapel got 182 each; Mr. Brouker got 59 and fellow Republicans Stephanie Triko-Selelyo and Jess Forquer got 63 and 56, respectively.

Ms. Jakubec declined to be specific about what happened at the polling places, though she was one of the poll watchers claiming she was denied access.

She said the ballots are delivered to the polling places by county elections workers, and are not supposed to be opened until the polls close at 8 p.m. At that point, they are to be opened and counted in front of the poll watchers, with results announced immediately.

"The process was not followed in that manner," she said.

Mr. Brouker said that no matter what the result of this election is, he intends to take a hard look at the absentee balloting process to make sure it is being handled correctly.

He said this is the third time in the past five commissioners' races that a Republican won at the polls, then lost because of absentee ballots.

"How can the absentees be skewed so much, every time?" he wondered.

Robinson Republicans cite these oddities in the numbers:

• Collectively, the three GOP candidates received 51.4 percent of the total vote. They got only 24.5 percent of the absentee ballots cast.

• There were 255 absentee ballots in Robinson out of 3,609 total ballots. In neighboring Moon, there 110 absentee ballots cast out of 4,464 total.

• There were more absentee ballots cast this year than last year, when the presidential race prompted 7,218 voters to cast ballots overall.

Mr. Brouker said he has researched absentee applications and found that about 150 voters cast absentee ballots election after election, most of them stating on their applications that they will be out of town.

In that group, he said, are 28 residents of the 40-unit Robinson Manor senior citizen complex, who all requested absentee ballots because of travel in each of the past three local elections.

Mark Wolosik, director of the county elections department, said he could not immediately confirm those claims, but noted that the local Republicans have the right to challenge absentee ballots.

He said lists of absentee requests are available ahead of time and are posted at the polling places. Voters can challenge any that they believe are improper, though the challenges have to be filed on election day.

"If they think something is not right, they have recourse," he said.

Mr. Brouker said the Robinson Republicans considered challenging absentees, but did not because of the $10-per-challenge fee and the fact that the burden of proof falls on the challenger.

"Basically, you have to go knock on everybody's door throughout the day to see if they're home," he said. But he said win or lose, he intends to do just that in the future.

"My main goal here is to serve notice that this will never happen again," he said.

Jim Burn, chairman of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, said he was not familiar with any of the claims.

"These appear to be baseless accusations and an attempt to draw inferences which do not exist," Mr. Burn said. "In my opinion, the Republican accusers are right up on the line of a defamatory action here and they should do their best to think first before they go any further."

He also described the Robinson Democrats as a "very pro-active committee that's just doing its job."

Robinson Democratic Committee Chairman John Wovchko could not be reached for comment.

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