Norco Citizens Elections Committee Follow That Paper Trail

Last night, Northampton County's Citizens Election Committee had its second meeting. Chairman Peg Ferraro had suggested an evening meeting to accommodate working people, and it paid off. Elections Commission chair Walt Garvin attended, and so did commission members Ralph Stampone and Joan Rosenthal. Even Diane Neiper, VP of county council, was in the peanut gallery. It was a small but passionate group, concerned about the most important function of any county government - our elections.

Democrat Walt Garvin was complimented on a "terrific op-ed" concerning the elections process by Republican Jack Bradt. Everyone was very civil, excepting me. I'm a miserable bastard.

This advisory group struggled much of the evening, trying to understand what exactly went wrong with the Advanced Voting Solutions touchscreen machines in our last two elections. Although the machines themselves were described as very user friendly by elections chair Walt Garvin, he listed a litany of difficulties encountered along every step of the way, from acquisition to results. He acknowledged his commission only meets four times a year, a practice criticized by fellow commission member Joan Rosenthal. "We don't have a handle on what goes on."

Although the committee had a lot of questions about paper trails and hacking, there's little that one county can do about that. Fortunately, state and federal officials have seen the light. Twenty-seven states now require a voter-verified paper trail, and a new Democratic Congress is poised to do the same thing on a federal level.

Committee members also heard about other problems in the elections office, and these have nothing to do with the machines: A registrar who publicly labels voters seeking absentee ballots as lazy; high office turnover; poorly trained elections workers who won't offer provisional ballots to voters they turn away; an elections office that doesn't answer the phone when a poll worker has questions; a party chair whose daughter worked in the elections office; an elections commission chair who hosts a highly partisan radio talk show; and a ballot designed to encourage straight party voting.

Dick Benner, who supervised 45 elections before he retired, put his finger on the real problem. The office must become more receptive to the public and candidates. It's not voting machines, but elections workers, who need to become more user friendly.

This advisory group will be meeting again at the courthouse on the following dates: February 7 (7 PM), February 13 (4 PM), February 21 (7 PM) and February 28 (7 PM). If you can't attend, you can contact this committee with your concerns at voter.info@northamptoncounty.org. When minutes are available, I'll post them on the left sidebar.