Matthew Chikosky now is among the 73,056 Mercer County residents registered to vote Nov. 7.

The Hermitage man may have been denied the right to vote if the Mercer County Board of Elections had not helped.

The election board, consisting of the county commissioners, Thursday approved Chikosky’s voter registration. A clerical snafu at the PennDOT Driver’s License Center threatened to deny him his vote.

Chikosky said he retired as an Army military intelligence officer and returned to Mercer County after being stationed in Virginia since 1984.

On Sept. 21, Chikosky and his wife, Karen, had their driver’s licenses transferred from Virginia to Pennsylvania at the Driver’s License Center, said James A. Bennington, Registration and Elections director, referring to Chikosky’s memo.

Under the state 1995 Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Voter Law, people seeking driver’s licenses can also register to vote. When registering to vote at the driver’s license center, Chikosky was told that his name was already in the computer and that he needed only to have his address changed, Chikosky said in his memo.

A few days before the Oct. 10 voter registration deadline, Mrs. Chikosky received her voter registration card in the mail, but Chikosky did not, Bennington said. After waiting, Chikosky called the county Registration and Elections Office, asking why he did not receive his card.

Bennington said he responded that Chikosky was not registered to vote. The county office received only a change of address for Chikosky, he said. It was a few days after the voter registration deadline, Bennington said.

Bennington said Chikosky could take his case to Commonwealth Court. But after looking into the problem, the elections director discovered that the county election board was authorized to take the unusual step, he said.

Voting is important for the newly registered Republican. "I consider it a duty," Chikosky said. "I spent most of my adult life defending the Constitution of the United States. Every citizen should do that duty."

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