Northampton County Council voted last night to appoint four new members to what should be a very busy Elections Commission next year. Council also re-appointed Maudenia Hornick who has served for the past two years.
The new appointees are Democrats Alan Brau, M.D., Daniel Lopresti, and Gail W Preuninger. The GOP newcomer is Frank L DeVito. He will join fellow Republican Hornick
Under the County's Home Rule Charter, the five-member Elections Commission is made up of members of the two political parties receiving the greatest number of votes in the most recent general election. Three members come from the majority party, and the remaining two come from the minority.
It is the party chairs who provide five recommendations each, from which the Executive makes his nominations. Members of the Elections Commission are unable to hold or seek public office or be officers of their party.
The appointments passed 8-0, with no discussion. A ninth Council member, Matt Dietz, was absent.
Though there was no controversy concerning the new Elections Commission, five citizens stepped forward to express their dissatisfaction over the failure of the Express Vote XL in the most recent election.
Deb Hunter is a member of the existing Elections Commission until the end of this year. She argued that ES&S, which sold the $2.9 million system to the county, violated its contract. "We should get our money back," she asserted. She also called on the County to hire an independent diagnostician to look over ES&S's shoulder when they examine the machines to determine what went wrong. She suggested Elections Office employees be trained in the "logic and accuracy" testing done on each machine. She wondered why Amy Hess, the Acting Registrar since January, is still just an Acting Director. Finally, she urged Council to hire a FT or PT machine custodian, a position that was eliminated in th 2019 Budget.
Hunter's comments were echoed by Gail Preuninger, who will become an Election Commissioner herself in January. Roger Dreisbach Williams said he is encouraging everyone in his community to vote by paper ballot, and urged the County to delay is election count until the Wednesday after the election for some reason. Lorraine Mineo urged the County to hire more poll workers.
Executive McClure, during his report, explained that Amy Hess has done an exceptional job assuming the role of Acting Registrar, but is unable to discuss what has happened publicly because it is a personnel matter.
"We are thinking about everything," he assured those who had suggestions. One decision has already been made. He wants to replace the current paper registration poll books with electronic poll books, which should make it much easier for voters to check in.
"We want to know what happened and what the fix is," he said of vendor ES&S. But he is confident that the election, flawed as it was, was still "legal, fair and accurate."
He indicated members of the Elections office will observe ES&S when it does its analysis. Hunter's suggestion that an independent diagnostician be hired is likely unworkable because the system is proprietary.
Insofar as Hunter's suggestion that Elections Office workers be involved in the "logic and accuracy" testing, they already are involved.
7 comments:
how long does it take for ExpressVote to figure out why the malfunction occurred. surely, this has happened before in the history of this company. I understand that these machines are impounded but someone must have an answer by now. come clean and tell us you spent 2.8 million dollars without researching the company.
Farce!
He has a rubber stamp, what does he care.
One term administration!
@4:22 am and 4:41am OR simply MezzaCrazy
just to remind you, Republican Elections commission people are the ones who picked the machines, the Democrats, Meaning Deb Hunter voted no and wanted the county to spend thousands an election on Paper ballots that would later have to be thrown away at a much greater expense per election
I don't care who picked the machines, I want to know why they malfunctioned. someone should have an answer for the county taxpayer as well as the candidates by now. I don't like spending 2.8 million on shit that doesn't work.
It was $2.9 M, not $2.8. Neither the county nor the vendor can tell you anything until the impoundment order is lifted. Once that happens, the vendor will be able to say what happened pretty quickly, and provide a fix. Since its business rep is at stake, and it stands to lose many millions, it will need to be very open.
Thee is little doubt in my mind hat the Express Vote XL, despite what happened, is the best choice we could have made. In fact, I think we need more of them. But ES&S needs to fix the issue, and explain what happened. It will, too.
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