READING, Pa. – Berks County Commissioner Michael Rivera, chair of the board of elections, reviewed some voter number statistics at Thursday’s regular board of elections meeting.

Rivera reported that in the May 19 primary, there were a total of 51,612 ballots cast.

Of that total, 25,937 were Democrats and 25,675 were Republicans.

The total voter turnout was 23.22%, with the Democrat voter turnout being 24.9% and the Republican voter turnout being 21.73%.

On absentee ballots, Rivera said there were a total of 19,855 mail-in ballots issued and 11,436 Democrat ballots were returned and 4,861 Republican ballots were returned.

The total mail-in ballots counted was 16,297, which equates to a return rate of 82.08 percent.

There were 224 provisional ballots submitted, with 77 being rejected for various purposes, but mainly due to the wrong party or that there was no party affiliation.

Only members of the Democrat and Republican parties are permitted to vote in primary elections since Pennsylvania does not allow open primaries.

In other business, the board voted to refer to two election-related matters to the district attorney’s office for further investigation.

The first stems from multiple complaints from a constituent regarding text messages that from a New Jersey phone number that were campaign advertisements using the likeness of an individual but did not contain the required advertiser disclaimer.

The second involved an employee in the call center on Election Day who made changes to their own registration record.

Because the deadline for updating registration has passed, the matter falls under the law that criminalizes unauthorized changes to ensure the integrity of the election.

Solicitor Cody Kauffman said at first he felt it was an isolated employee matter but had since learned that a second employee in the call center also made changes to a registration which was not their own.

Kauffman said it is a misdemeanor of the first degree to intentionally insert or permit an insertion in a registration record without proper authorization.