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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, January 10, 2020

McClure Wants EpollBooks, More XLs

Boockvar and McClure sample XL.
Since the November 5 election, the ExpressVote XL voting system has been under siege. Both a federal and state judge have been asked to ban their use in this year's fast-approaching April 28 Presidential Primary as well as the November 3 General Election. Northampton County's Election Commission voted unanimously that it has "no confidence" in this equipment after an election in which the county was stuck with machines that had been improperly calibrated, improperly programmed and improperly tested. Yet in his report to County Council last night, Northampton County Lamont McClure said he may want more of them.

Basically, he has no choice. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has told a federal court that it would be logistically impossible for counties using the ExpressVote XL to have a new system in place without about a year of lead time And McClure told Council last night that other systems such as a paper ballot and scanner would have their own issues, which was certainly the case in York County. Better the devil you know. He wants to be able to purchase 100 additional machines to reduce lines at the polling precincts on election day.

In addition, he wants to replace the pollbooks currently used by election workers to check in voters. The process of looking for and finding a voter in these paper books is time-consuming. Moreover, if a voter is in the wrong precinct, an election judge usually has to call the voting office to determine where the voter should go. An epollbook enables the clerk to find a voter instantly, making it much easier to sign in. If someone is at the wrong precinct, which is often the case in a presidential election, the epollbook will tell the clerk where a person who wants to vote can exercise that right.

According to McClure, epollbooks have been used in Lehigh County for several years, and have reduced lines.

Besides, he has no choice. Recent changes in state law will make it impossible to prepare paper pollbooks in time for this year's elections.

McClure announced these changes in state law mean that, for the first time, people will be able to vote by mail. He said the state will be announcing its guidelines today, and he intends to send every voting household a letter to explain this convenience, which might also help reduce lines.

He also hinted that Northampton County might conduct a mock election with the ExpressVote XL to ensure the system runs smoothly.

He will outline his plan at this month's Elections Commission meeting.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, you really will do anything to defend this clown.

Anonymous said...

Where does county Council stand on these machines? Did they discuss what they want to have happen or are they just going along with McClure?

Anonymous said...

This Northampton County taxpayers says "NO" to purchasing more machines or anything for elections. Clearly, McClure doesn't know what he is doing especially putting a clerical person in charge of vetting out machines that caused all these problems. Amazingly, we don't see or hear anything about her. Is she in hiding until McClure's attempt at re-election. The only vote from me will be to get him out.

Anonymous said...

He'll go down as the guy who screwed up elections in a county where they'd run smoothly since the mid-1700s. What a mess. It's time for him to do the right thing and resign.

Anonymous said...

As a NC voter I am disturbed to read this - McClure ‘might’ conduct a mock election to demonstrate the accuracy of this system. Not good enough! Better become he WILL conduct a test election!

Confidence will not be re-gained until the complete voting procedure is fully explained in detail, then a trial run using a convincing number of randomly selected voters/machines with result totals proven to be accurate. An independent company could handle such a test and verification.

Anonymous said...

How do you conduct a mock poll? Who votes?

Anonymous said...

To hell with little Northampton County. Bloody Philadelphia is using these POS machines as well. Bernie's dream, no R votes will count! Uber Corrupt Philly gives the state to plugs biden or whatever communist the D party has already decided on. This all from beady eyed Wolf. A D.

Anonymous said...

Should also add - the entire process of handling a greatly increased number of mail-in ballots must be fully revealed in detail, well ahead of time to allow analysis of trustworthiness.

It’s quite clear, an increasing number of Americans no longer trust their government representatives. It is foolhardy to believe the underhanded, sometimes illegal, actions we see from our Members of Congress in Washington don’t also happen here in Pennsylvania.

Bernie O'Hare said...

12:58, I have reported what McClure told Council and it is beyond cavil that neither he nor Council has much choice but to continue using the machines. It is logistically impossible to replace them before the April 28 primary. This has nothing to do with defending or attacking him. It is just the way things are. Same for epollbooks. Because of the state law changes, it will be impossible to prepare paper pollbooks. The combination of more machines, epollbooks and the vote by mail option should make it somewhat easier to vote and reduce lines.

1:49 County Council was highly critical of ES&S after the disastrous election. McGee, Lott, Heckman, Vargo-Heffner, Ferraro and Heckman all blasted what had happened. They also understand that this is bc the machines were improperly configured, programmed and tested. If there is a recurrence, there will be holy war to pay. But the notion of dropping the system for something else is unworkable.

6:23 & 7:01, This is precisely what Philadelphia did before the last election. They took a number of machines and, using election workers, conducted a pilot election to see how the machines operated. This is in addition to the logic and accuracy testing. Had this been done with our machines, the problems encountered on election day would have been found early and fixed.

7:02, Actually, more than Philly. As I have previously reported, "At least seven counties have opted for an ExpressVote system. These include McKean, Elk, Montour, Northampton, Philadelphia, Cumberland and Juniata Counties." Moreover, 39 counties are using systems manufactured by ES&S, which makes the ExpressVote XL.

Anonymous said...

You beat me to it Bernie. You are just reporting news, which used to be the basis for responsible journalism. It is your faithful following of trolls who throw their opinions around as if they are facts. BTW if the process is so corrupt wouldn't your boy Trump been defeated?

Anonymous said...

7:55 - Trump WAS defeated (supposedly) in the popular vote total. Thank goodness we have the protection of needing a majority of Electoral College votes. Otherwise, a small number of failed states would determine every national outcome.

Voter fraud, ballot-harvesting, etc. is REAL. The problem will only continue to grow when your elections are first designed to be EASIER and QUICKER. A real recipe for disaster. There is great reason to be suspicious of those who get their hands inside the system. Even those who participate inside the Pennsylvania election process.

Anonymous said...

He needs to provide details on his plans to manage the mountain of absentee ballots coming their way. While the dogshit machines will be problematic, the mail-in counting could be worse.

Re: a mock election, he's already made a mockery of county elections. At least we got national press, right?

Anonymous said...

From 7:55. Well said and I respect your thoughts. Long live civility!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bernie O'Hare said...

Mezzacappa pist your vulgarities on your loony Constable page

Anonymous said...

No empirical data produced as of yet to show what is or will be done to fix the voting machines