On Election Day, Northampton County Voting Registrar Amy Hess worked for over 24 hours in a day that included court appearances, nonstop telephone calls and fielding numerous complaints about The ExpressVote XL voting system as well as the usual complaints that come with an election. So did her entire staff. On Thursday, they were preparing for the formal vote canvass scheduled to start tomorrow morning. When Northampton County Council convened at 6:30 pm, she was right across the hall with her staff, putting things together so an official count in a controversial race can be established. Executive Lamont McClure had ES&S Senior VP Adam Carbullido on hand, ready to discuss the shortcomings of his company's voting system. But instead of hearing from the manufacturer of the system that had gone awry, Council President Ron Heckman was "disappointed" that Hess was actually still working on the election instead of standing before the firing squad alongside McClure and Carbullido. "She should have known to be here," complained Heckman. So Hess had to be taken away from her duties so she could be dragged in front of Council and answer what really were stupid questions. Such was the way things went in a Council meeting that ending with a shakedown by two Bethlehem cops, one of them son of Police Chief Mark DiLuzio, looking to make a quick buck.
McClure and Carbullido pretty much repeated what they had said in their news conference the previous day. They both apologized. Neither knows precisely what caused the printouts to show Abe Kassis as having received no votes. But guess what? It is County Council that voted 8-1 to purchase these machines. No apologies from them. Council instead complained about everyone and everything else.
After dragging Hess before Council, Heckman asked her, after ten minutes of monologue, for suggestions on what can be done to "educate people on these machines." Say what? Whether a voter is 18 or 80, there should be no need for education or training, no matter what system is used. But Matt Dietz and Lori Vargo-Heffner actually agreed with Heckman that there should be "more training for the voters."
Heckman went on to suggest training sessions at senior centers, but is apparently totally oblivious that there was voter outreach at several senior centers as well as numerous other venues In fact, Northampton County did more outreach than any other county in the state.
Council member Bill McGee offered this brilliant insight: "We bought a car and the car doesn't work. We want our car back or something."
Carbullido was subjected to an attempted cross-examination by Council member Bob Werner, the sole No vote to the machines. Werner failed.
Council member Kevin Lott was the only effective critic. He made clear he has no confidence in ES&S. "You put this County in a very bad position. ... We thought we were buying a Cadillac, and it doesn't work."
Carbullido said he understood the frustration and would work hard to regain the county's trust.
After the voting machine blunder, Council went on the make another mistake.
Executive Lamont McClure wanted to condemn a property at 150 South Union Street forto Cou a parking lot. This property was just purchased in September by Sunblest Holdings, a LLC owned by Bethlehem cops Michael DiLuzio and Sam Elias. They paid $33,045.00. The County offered to buy it several times, and offered up to $50,000. They finally responded yesterday, demanding at least $85,000.
Northampton County owns an adjoining property, which has holes in the roof. For soe reason, Council member Matt Dietz argued Council should fix up its own property before demolishing it. Council member John Cusick objected to a condemnation without an appraisal, even though a condemnation would result in the appointment of a Board of View that could order an assessment.
Though Diluzio insisted that the property owner still lived there, his mail indicates an address in Wilson Borough. Executive McClure said DiLuzio was engaged in real estate speculation.
Heckman then expressed doubts about condemnation, even though he agrees parking is needed.
At this point, McClure go up and offered $85,000 for the property just purchased by these real estate speculators on September, ensuring them a capital gain of $52,000.
I did not hear a response from the shakedown artists, who now apparently think they can get even more money.
Hopefully, McClure will withdraw this offer.
Kevin Lott moved to table the condemnation, which passed. But that made no difference. Despite Roberts Rules, which prohibit the discussion of a matter after it is tabled, Council droned on for about ten more minutes.
The final matter considered was a grant application for the Coroner that must be filed by November 15. Heckman, who had just violated Council's own rules by discussing a tabled matter, objected to the resolution because it arrived late.
"We just ask for a certain level of respect," he said. If he wants others to follow Council's rules, so should he.
57 comments:
I hope that this newly elected council has the foresight to rid itself from this blundering old buffoon and elect a truly qualified President this time who can run a meeting as it should be run.
Sorry Bernie, but helping out voters on their first vote on a new machine is part of their job. Polling places in general it seems did not do a good job and many did not alert voters (as was ordered by the judge) about potential problems with the retention votes. You're a poll worker so this is your wheel house which makes you extra sensitive.
Diarrhea of the mouth Heckman is an embarrassment as the President of Council. He rambles on and on because he likes to hear himself talk and he doesn't say anything. After ten minutes of his lunacy you still try to decipher what it is that he has said. Northampton County can do better. Heckman at the age of eighty should learn that "silence is golden, get rich quick".
"Sorry Bernie, but helping out voters on their first vote on a new machine is part of their jo"
You completely miss my point. No voter should need "training." Any system used should be simple enough that anyone, whether 18 or 80, can figure it out. Of course there should be voter outreach and of course poll workers should be trained to help. But you don't "train" or "educate" voters.
" Polling places in general it seems did not do a good job and many did not alert voters (as was ordered by the judge) about potential problems with the retention votes. You're a poll worker so this is your wheel house which makes you extra sensitive."
I was a poll worker but you can rest assured that I have no extra sensitivity when it comes to them. I see bad ones and good ones and am perfectly willing to believe that some of them may have ignored a court order.
"Diarrhea of the mouth Heckman is an embarrassment as the President of Council."
He has been a good President and has demonstrated some real wisdom at many times. But last night he was terrible. He did ramble and you do not discuss matters after they are tabled. Thanks to him and the idiots who hate condemnation, two Bethlehem cops might have just made $52k in about two months. That's your money out the door and into the pockets of Chief DiLuzio's son. Disgraceful.
Isn't DiLuzio's mother an attorney in the McClure Administration?
She is married to the Chief, but is not this cop's mother. I still do not like this at all.
1) The objection concerning appraisal, made by Cusick, is irrelevant. In a condemnation, an appraisal is conducted.
2) The condemnation is for a public purpose, i.e., more parking,which is very much needed. The notion that we have some obligation to fix up a next door property that we intend to demolish is simply ridiculous.
3) The "tenant" who supposedly lives and there actually lives in Wilson Borough.
Two cops are extorting the County. It's legal extortion, but extortion nonetheless. I'd tell them to take a walk and hope McClure withdraws his offer and asks Council to untable this matter.
Two cops are extorting the County. It's legal extortion, but extortion nonetheless. I'd tell them to take a walk and hope McClure withdraws his offer and asks Council to untable this matter.
THIS IS THE REAL STORY HERE
The property was purchased in Sept. Was it on the market? Did council know it was for sale? Maybe it should have been on the County wish list and everyone missed the boat.
Council finally got b-lls to stand up to McClueless and his extorting cabinet. Took notice that BOWTIE CHARLES sat quietly after his tail was handed to him by the judges. Ms. Hess was summed but where was the expert Ms. Cozze. How long before Chief PD DiLuzio gets wacked for her stepson being smarter than the County Executive. Was there inside info to the stepson since CPD DiLuzio was friends with Solicitor Rudas? They are all corrupt and finally got called on it. Good job Council for finally standing up for the voters.
That land offer reminds me of the big payout Pawlowski paid to Abe Atiyeh for that land near the Little Lehigh that had an open market value of about 50% what was paid. To add insult to injury, he used the funds from the water utility sale. And then his pawn successor had to sock the tax payers to make up for it.
Is it any wonder people are suspicious about how governments spend their money?
Those cops are corrupt, then been flipping homes making money off people for years. I hope they get charged with extortion for stealing that house from the county.
I agree voters should have been notified there might be a glitch in the touch screens. A simple posting would do or handing them each a briefly worded printed notification. Poll workers have enough to do.
"Educating" voters how to use machines. .. maybe they shouldn't be voting in the first place. Ye gads how could anyone make this any simpler?
LVCI@1:08PM
Do you need corrective lenses to see? Or do you see everything this way?
Good job BO, if you keep digging you're going to find out much more about the funny business of this officer duo. SE belongs to a certain community in Easton and....
Parking, parking , parking which has been an on going issue since the 80's. Build a proper deck and solve the issues already ! With all the money wasted by the county on the existing deck and other piss poor run projects this should and could have been taken care of 20 years ago. Yet they still bitch about it and just take more properties of the tax rolls. Brilliant Gov't.
Sorry, but the dubious land deal smells fishy. If this were the Brown administration you would be apoplectic. So the stepson of the public defender who is friends with the county solicitor just happened upon a foreclosure sale of a property half owned by the county and now the Executive wants a blank check (via condemnation action) from Council to him and his partner under the dubious claim of a need for more parking? Glad to see it was tabled.
Reibman screwed the pooch with his joke of a 110 million dollar bond and most of those monies went to private developers and not county owned property that was in need of expansion and/or repair. Still dealing with the same crap years later ( voting machines, bridges, courthouse parking , office space … Deals to rent buildings only to pay for it a second time in buying the same structure when the lease was up). Simply pathetic the way our county has been run all these years.
2:33, I think I’ve made clear this deal stinks to high heaven, and for many reasons. But it is actually McClure’s admin that has made clear these cops are extorting the county. They are doing it legally, but it is still a shakedown. It is Council that has acted like idiots on a no-brainer.
Dubious claim of a need for parking? You’re Nutz.
What is up with these local politicians and their obsession with parking lots?
The best article on the voting fiasco was by Yates in the Morning Call. The judges disagree with you O'Hare, they slammed Dertinger and McClure. You are butt hurt that people questioned this Exec. I guess you are pissed at the judges as well since they were also upset about the machine fiasco.
Once again you will slam anybody and any group that dares question Leader Lamont. Voters are the most important here not your feelings or that of the county's glorious leader and his minions. If council wants to shake things good for them.
Bernie would you be kind enough to repost my comments about spending millions of dollars on new machines. I think I said -why not pat poll workers that money over a ten year period. That would draw out more folks to get involved l3 million over a period of time and we don’t know where the tech will be in 3 years from now. This distribution of fresh money in to families.
4:12, you obviously have a personal animus. I have been critical of neither McClure nor the judges and was at a polling place on Election Day, not a courtroom. I have been critical of whatever programming error led to the mistake, have been critical of denying press coverage of the vote count, and have questioned the value and accuracy testing done. The system is actually an excellent system, but no system is error free when testing fails.
Bernie is right. Tara Zirinski for President of council. We need new blood!
Why doesn't the county get the lot under eminent domain, and reimburse the 2 entrepreneurs with $33,000 fair market value? Baaaaaaaaaam.
Voters should do their due diligence to use the machines. Poll workers aren't paid enough to instruct the nearly thousand voters that walk into their polling place.
Poll workers are trained to assist with paper jams, lowering the screen for a disabled voter, assisting a voter with increasing font size, etc. Despite all the literature and printed instructions, voters rely on the goodness of the election officials to walk them them through everything...even how to put the ballot in.
McClure and the rest of NorCo aren't responsible for the digital counting fiasco. They didn't program the machines. Those that voted for the machines, however, could be responsible for selecting machines that use a disastrous touch screen.
Having machines that permit you to see your paper ballot before casting your vote will always take longer to use than a machine that doesn't. End of argument.
The programming error in this most recent election will make NorCo the poster child for the need for a verifiable paper ballot.
Everyone should be at a public meeting. Was the machine inspector and promoter, Amazing Amy Cozze there? Or after this fiasco did they keep her hidden away.
Voting should be quick, easy and accurate, it is that simple. The country is spending a lot of money and buying chaos. Destroying faith in the election system. One has to wonder if it is all intentional to discourage voting at all. The more you look at the decisions of these educated bureaucrats, we see that thinking clearly is no longer one of their talents.
In the Express Times newspaper article, Apology for ‘three-alarm raging fire’ that consumed Northampton County election process, Updated Nov 06, 2019;Posted Nov 06, 2019 , McClure stated "I might have made a different decision if it were my call,” McClure admitted. Does he doesn't trust his own people in the Solicitor's office to make sound decisions. What other decisions have they made that were not sound at the cost of the taxpayers? What other taxpayer money have they wasted because of his arrogance?
McClure cited provisions in the Elections Code as to who MUST be permitted to attend. The Elections Code does not expressly prohibit the public, and that is why McClure said he might have made a different decision. That is consistent with the law and his desire for transparency.
I an getting tired of the ridiculous cheap shots being taken at Amy Cozze by a jealous person at the courthouse. Only people at the courthouse would be able to describe what she wears every day. And this jealous person is probably paid over $100,000 a year. Knock it off.
The above comment is in reference to a personal attack that has been deleted.
Your comments in your blog about the Cops should be deleted in reference to personal attacks.
Wrong. My own comments are not anonymous and I own them. I also told those cops to their faces that they were engaged in a shakedown.
Bob Ryan of KDDI America having a liquid breakfast today are we? Hard to drink away the shame and pain maybe you should try switching to fentanyl.
Bernie did I not post , “pay the poll workers,”distributing cash and count votes with paper ? My suspicions were pay them generously that you attract great people and not religh on electronics? Please repost my suggestion from the time of announcing new machines. Now I know this Governor was up to replacing machines. In the Marine Corps we don’t like batteries,or computers subject to Eelectronic interferences on a battlefield for same reason . So what if it takes two days 3 million bucks could help the local families. We saw it now and we pays the money anyway. Wait till next election. It won’t be 56,683 or what is was ,it’s going to be twice this.
Read the papers and watched Tv on this one. There is an old expression that is "jump the shark" when a good thing goes off the rails. I am afraid that is this post Bernie. Your posts are good and informative but this one jumped the shark. Based on all other media your slam on the county council is way over the top. I watched the meeting video after reading the reports. Council was justifiably upset as ere most of we the people voting. The fact that they just didn't shut their mouths and follow the McClure script is the problem. You attacked the Brownstain county council for just following his lead. These council people ask questions and if McClure doesn't like them you attack the council for him. Of course McClure wants to control the narrative and bristles at anything that goes off his course. So what? You are really defending him to a ridiculous degree. You claim he is transparent but maybe he is not sometimes. This was a three million dollar deal and I prefer my elected officials to question the King. I agree with the judges and the council that this was more than just cross filed races and sensitivity. McClure's people pushed this machine and they want to cover their asses and shut up council and you want to help them. The video shows council members accepting blame over the machines and admitted they voted to pay the money. Also I didn't think they went after anyone other than the million dollar company man. The way to do it is open and public and not just carefully crafted press conferences. Your attacks on them and their chairman come off as mean and vindictive. McClure is not the king and you are better than this.
The judges at no time have said it is more than hypersensitivity. Don't know where you got that. Asfor questioning the King, itt is this Council that voted 8-1 for the purchase. So just as McClure is responsible, so are they. Yet they pretended otherwise. And right after that, they fell into the clutches of some cops who are pulling a fast one. So my criticism of them is more than warranted.
And I have news for you. There is nothing wring with The Express Vote XL. There was something wring with the way this ballot was programmed, and the testing is flawed bc it failed to pick up the programming error. But this error, though significant, had no impact on the paper ballot. I say that because, if it did, many voters would have noticed when reviewing their ballot.
This is a built-in redundancy and it makes this system superior to an isolated paper ballot, which does create privacy concerns, or a stand alone touch screen.
lehigh county is in worse shape than nothampton county Armstrong and Hartzell - fake news lefty dem along with the rest of the dems will see to it
There is a major privacy issue when 2 voter workers have to come in to see and fix the problem then take your problem paper and say they will take care of it.
No, the major privacy issue occurs with paper ballots. In my precinct, there was only one spoiled ballot with a 38% turnout. I never looked at the ballot and just marked it void in front of the voter and handed her a new ballot. Two people were not needed. Don’t know where you got that notion. Even before the Express Vote XL, there have been numerous instances in which a voter has questions.. theycan be answered without opening the privacy curtain. The same is true of the XL. You are inventing nonexistent issues.
Lehigh County did have some privacy issues bc of the paper ballot. Knowing Tim Benyo, the Registrsr, they will not happen again.
Just watched the video. Does Zarinski ever speak in a complete sentence. She doesn't ever express a complete thought.
What does the employment as cops have anything to due with this. Did they claim some benefit in front of council?
The relevance of their employment is that, rightly or wrongly, i expect the highest ethical standards.
BERNIE these cops are two of the more popular cops in Bethlehem. They are liked for their community outreach on-duty and off-duty. Your argument is unsubstantiated.
Let's start off by saying the voting machines are computers. Who programmed these machines with the information needed for Northampton County? Were they configured properly.
"BERNIE these cops are two of the more popular cops in Bethlehem. They are liked for their community outreach on-duty and off-duty. Your argument is unsubstantiated."
So they should have no problem being held to a higher standard.
Let me tell you something about history. Posters should stop disagreeing with O'Hare. McClure is officially an O'Hare mancrush. That means he is never wrong unless O'Hare says so. It also means anyone who does not agree with him or follow his lead is incompetent and wrong.
Anyone watching the meeting video can see the council did their job. They accept blame as much as McClure and asked about ways to make next year better but that was not on the McClure script. Also as far as the property goes, council tabled it for more consideration. Also it was McClure who angrily screamed he would pay them 80K. So how this is all such a fiasco is because we and the council must realize we are in a new age, the age of the McClure mancrush. It will be a long two years for county council and any McClure critics as they are now on notice to shut the hell up or be skewered by O'Hare. So it is with any mancrush.
Programming did not make the machines touch mechanism go off the rails...hypersensitivity or under sensitivity. Something is up with these machines.
2:08 AM - Bernie, are you calling me a liar. I was there and know what I went through. Two people viewed my screen and paper ballot. One lady viewed the issue and she got the head lady of the new polling place in the Nazareth Middle School. The head lady took my initial paper from the machine, placed it in her hand that already had another in it, and told me that she would destroy them. Don't tell me what I know as fact! I was there you were not!
Election laws in Pennsylvania give the "Election Commission" the authority to purchase voting machines, not the administration or County Council. The election law mandates that the administration in a "Home Rule County" appoint political hacks to the Election Commission. There is plenty of blame to go around here. If you are trying to blame one person for this mess you are obviously wrong and Bernie is right. The Election Commission doesn't have a budget so they are at the mercy of the Administration and County Council when it comes to purchasing because they control the purse strings. First thing you do is change the Charter to eliminate the political hacks on the Election Commission. Second thing you do is give the Election Commission the right to appoint their own legal Counsel. There are so many things wrong with the Home Rule Charter that a Study Commission should be convened to make changes to the sections of the Charter that aren't working. C'mon Bernie, you can bring this about. I know you can do it.
Another thing, why isn't bowtie Charlie front and center in this?? He certainly wanted the limelight when his arrogance pushed the election office around and he was THE main salesman for these machines. Lamont's arrogance was that he trusted Charles!
The Northampton County Election commission should reconvene and look into thus mess. It is wrong to blame the county council like O'Hare foes. The commission voted for these machines and Cozze and the Admisntration said they "researched" them and wanted them.
Council voted to pay for them. As per the charter.
O'Hare wants to cover McClure's ass as always. The commission should convene a meeting and look into to any irregularities in their vote or administrative interference. They should also call in machine expert Amy Cozze and question her as the council is not allowed to talk to her.
They were all front and center for the show but are all hiding under their rocks when it all went to Hell. Credit Council with trying to shine some light on this mess.
I at no time blamed County Council for the debacle. That's on ES&S for a programming error that iit amazingly failed to catch. I was critical of County Council bc they bear just as much responsibility as McClure. They voted to fund it. Although Heckman acknowledged at one or two points that we are all responsible, he was the only one.
I agree the election commission needs to take control of this situation. They are the group to do the investigation not the Admisntration. The commission will ensure there are no political games played. The voters do not want a political county executive controlling what is learned.
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