At yesterday's meeting of NorCo's Elections Commission, Registrar Chris Commini acknowledged that human error still exists with mail-in ballots (MIBs) resulting in the wrong ballots neing sent to voters. But unlike last year, the elections office caught the error itself. He also reported on a less than stellar turnout at a pop-up voting event at NorCo Community College.
Northampton County's Election Comm'n is charged under both the Home Rule Charter and state law with the administration of elections, but in practice, the Executive has made decisions that should be in their wheelhouse, even to the point of selecting the Voting Registrar. This has led to controversy in the past, but yesterday's meeting was focused on the upcoming primary.
It is a five-member body consisting of three members of the majority and two members of the minority parties. The Democratic members are Chair Sharon Gavin-Levy, Becky Bradley and Richard Groff. Republican members are Scott Hough and Shawn Welch.
Pop-Up Voting. - Commini told the Board that there were just three voters at the pop-up voting event held at Northampton Community College. Not many popped up. The turnout was better at Lafayette College, where 31 people obtained a ballot-by-demand. Two more pop-up events are scheduled in Upper Mount Bethel (last night) and at Lower Saucon Tp's Municipal Bldg (9am-12pm on Friday).
Ballots on-demand. So far, 44 voters have sought ballots-on demand.
Mail-in Ballots. - 24,494 ballots were mailed on the 1st day. As of yesterday, an additional 1,232 MIBs have been sent.
Elections Office Errors. If something can go wrong, it will. There is no exception to Murphy's Law, even when it comes to elections in an office that is now charged with conducting four elections (MIBs, in-person, ballot-on-demand and pop-up voting)
According to Commini, some voters received an incorrect party ballot. On top of this, some voters received a duplicate ballot package due to labeling. "I just want to point out that the voters have been instructed to destroy one of those packets, and the machine we have in place does not allow them to submit both ballots." Finally, one precinct initially received incorrect ballots. This error was identified and all affected voters were contacted directly and provided with the correct ballot. Commini said he was aware who was responsible for this mistakes and tht the matter is being handled internally.
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