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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Wednesday, February 05, 2020

NorCo Elections Comm'n to Meet Thursday

In addition to an op-ed taking the Northampton County Elections Commission to task over their refusal to recommend electronic poll books, Executive Lamont McClure has written to them. "You have a sworn obligation to ensure that the County has the ability to conduct an election," he notes. Their refusal to recommend epollbooks, and without providing a workable alternative, means the County has no ability to conduct a primary.

He has asked them to conduct a meeting before Friday to reconsider. "Time is of the essence and your failure to do so could prompt litigation," he warns.

The Elections Comm'n has responded by  running to The Morning Call to complain through party bosses who appear to be intent upon undermining public confidence in our electoral process. But they have scheduled a meeting for Thursday 8 pm.

A Council meeting will be going on simultaneously.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

So they are meeting after county council? Why not before so Council gets their update. This seems like a bullshot pussy move on their part. Hopefully County Council is the adult in the room and can resolve this pissing match between the Administration and the election Commission. It is getting embarrassing.

Hello? Leadership Please.

Anonymous said...

maybe they should take a field trip to Iowa

Anonymous said...

Technology failure by design. Je suis Iowa.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"So they are meeting after county council? Why not before so Council gets their update. This seems like a bullshot pussy move on their part. Hopefully County Council "

I have not received Council's agendas, but I believe they can approve this purchase without a recommendation from the Elections Comm'n. This purchase has nothing to do with the actual conduct of an election.

Anonymous said...

“ This purchase has nothing to do with the actual conduct of an election.“

Bernie, you might want to rephrase this sentence.

The epollbooks will be fine in their performance. I hope! But, they are absolutely more costly to obtain and maintain. Most importantly, the way they are being pushed through is really poor. Not the stuff that builds confidence in voters.

Anonymous said...

McClure = Trump = disaster/disgrace

Anonymous said...

Why wait till the last minute and put the e-book should have been considered along with the new voting machines. Something stinks at the Courthouse

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Why wait till the last minute and put the e-book should have been considered along with the new voting machines. Something stinks at the Courthouse"

The reason why epollbooks are needed now is because the Election Code was changed after the new voting machines were obtained, making it impossible to print accurate paper pollbooks in time. The county wants to make voting as easy as possible and wants to be able to report results. The Elections Comm'n would rather screw election workers and voters and are undermining voter confidence.

Anonymous said...

If administration circumnavigates Election Commission decision, and Council decides to purchase against Election Commission decision to not purchase, is there breach of HR Adminstrative code or standards of ethical conduct for elected officials threatening litigation?

Anonymous said...

Epollbooks are NOT required by law, even now. If true, this same product would be in use all across America. There were other products and methods. But, yes, choosing to delay this decision so long WILL, and should, bring about their purchase. Wish it would have been handled better.

Bernie O'Hare said...

10:29, no. I have explained this exhaustively in previous posts.

Bernie O'Hare said...

10:37,this product actually is in use in most US voting districts. As a practical matter, and this was made clear, we are unable to hold a election without them.

Anonymous said...

Knowing that the commission’s approval of epoll books was necessary and had not been acted upon, the prudent decision would have been to have had the books printed
In time for the primary. All this hand wringing is unnecessary drama.

Jeff Fox said...

What concerns me is the timing. The short time frame(s). It all seems so rushed and chaotic. It started with the governor's mandate at a state level, ended up a county issue since NorCo is responsible for conducting the election. It started with the voting machines, now it is the poll books. Though I understand the situation(s), I remain concerned.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Absolutely. But we have no choice. The kicker is we’ll be lucky to get 60% of the money we were forced to spend.

Bernie O'Hare said...

11:19, you don’t seem to understand. We can’t get paper poll books printed, at least not ones that are accurate.

Anonymous said...

Word has it that the administration never put out a bid for printing new poll books when they had already put out a bid for the epoll books back in November. Gee, could that have been because they didnt want to really offer the new or former EC a choice in the matter???

Anonymous said...

Both team McClure and the election Commission really screwed this up in their little pissing battle.

Anonymous said...

Not sure what really went on to bring us here, but do believe the current matter was purposely dragged-out to create some emergency need to act quickly. Just like everything that happens in Washington, from approving budgets full of unnecessary pork spending to impeaching a President before there is a crime committed.