NorCo Council Delighted By Successful Primary

NorCo Elections Staffer Rich Kessler
with the XL

Northampton County's election last November,  was supposed to be a relatively quiet municipal election. It was an unmitigated disaster. Tuesday's Presidential Primary was predicted to be a trainwreck. Yet the election went off without a hitch, and with the same voting system used in November. This was a pleasant surprise to County Council, and they expressed their gratitude to Voter Registrar Amy Cozze and her staff at last night's meeting.

Why We Got the XL

Northampton County had a perfectly fine voting system. It would have been better if it included a paper trail, but the useful life of the machines in use still had a few good years left in them. Then came Governor Tom Wolf, whose goal in life is to prove to the world that he's really woke. In order to settle a frivolous federal lawsuit filed by failed Presidential candidate Jill Stein, Wolf graciously agreed to order all 67 counties to have new voting systems in place, and with paper trails, in time for the 2020 Presidential Primary. Wolf never bothered to discuss this settlement in advance with the counties that would be shelling out the money and gave no thought to the burden it would place on them.

Northampton County scrambled. Administrator Charles Dertinger, P.B., fortunately has had considerable experience in the selection of three voting systems for NorCo. Council members also started paying attention to different systems at state conferences, where vendors displayed them. Dertinger liked the ExpressVote XL, Cadillac of hybrid voting systems. It is the best of both worlds, combining the simplicity of a touch screen with a voter-verifiable paper trail.

Then Acting Voting Registrar Amy Hess liked the XL, too. At this time, Amy Cozze was working for the County and was tasked with coming up with the best system, regardless what anyone else thought. She independently decided on the XL. So did Fiscal Affairs Director Steve Barron, who concluded it was actually cheaper in the long run than other systems.

Around this time, Lehigh County was also considering several systems. It scheduled a demonstration of at least four, including the XL, for election judges. At that time, Debbie Hunter was a member of NorCo's Election Commission, and she wondered if NorCo judges could look at those systems, too. Lehigh County Voting Register Tim Benyo graciously agreed, and about 30 election judges invaded Lehigh County to look at the choices. Benyo joked there were more people there from NorCo than Lehigh.

Voting Registrar Amy Cozze

Amy Hess asked NorCo election judges to rate the different systems. They overwhelmingly went with the XL. This system was also the choice of the Elections Commission in a 3-2 vote.  County Council delayed its decision because a smug group of "Better Elections" people accused them of failing to do their homework. These paper ballot purists dismissed the recommendation of elections judges who are obviously less informed than they. These "better" people wanted a paper ballot system notwithstanding concerns from election judges that it would be difficult to vote in private.

After Delaware conducted a successful election with the XL, County Council finally decided on this system in an 8-1 vote, with  former Council member Bob Werner being the sole No vote. Council was warned again they were making a terrible mistake.,

Unfortunately, they were.

The November Nightmare 

It was unknown at the time, but the XL was a ticking time bomb that exploded once the polls opened. As many as 70% of the machines had been improperly aligned at the factory, making them too hypersensitive. This flaw showed up most prominently in the judicial retention races. This quickly caught the attention of our judges, who issued a flurry of court orders throughout the day. They even sent constables with Orders to be read to one and all.

That was bad enough, but only the beginning of the nightmare. When the polls closed, and machines began tabulating results, the cross-filed races were off. For example, Judicial candidate Abe Kassis had zero votes.

When the back-up paper ballots were scanned, he actually won the race..

At this point, all the voting machines and equipment were impounded. The XL vendor, Electronic Systems and Software, was soon able to determine that it had screwed up big time. In addition to the improper alignment, it had failed to program the races correctly, resulting in zero votes for some candidates in cross-filed races. To complete this symphony of errors, the vendor also acknowledged that it had botched up the logic and accuracy testing that should be performed on each voting machine before an election.

Northampton County made headlines throughout the country. A procession of paper ballot purists appeared at Council meetings to say, "I told you so." Some county officials were accused of being bribed, a charge that infuriated Executive Lamont McClure.

Though what had happened was no reflection on Acting Registrar Amy Hess, the pressure was too much for her. She stepped down. Fortunately, she stayed in her position as Chief Deputy.

The Two Amys 

In stormy waters, McClure selected Amy Cozze to head the Elections Office. She was immediately confronted by hurricanes from a new Elections Commission that wanted to scrap the XL without giving the vendor an opportunity to reclaim its good name. They rejected her request for epollbooks, even though no paper pollbook printer could do the job. On top of all this, she was going to have to process no-excuse mail-in ballots for the first time.

Cozze had one thing going for her. Her staff. Amy Hess, a veteran of many elections, was willing to stay on as Deputy, and the duo quickly became known as the Two Amys. She also had an excellent and unflappable staff of Richard Kessler and Jenna Gerbino.

Executive McClure took the request for epollbooks to County Council. Both party bosses united to throw up roadblocks. They wanted the County to scrap the system in favor of paper ballots, even though such a daunting task was logistically impossible.  County Council was again accused of failing to do its homework. Though pressured, Council stood by the XL. They also agreed to the epollbooks because there really was no choice.

As if things weren't bad enough, Covid-19 hit. Governor Tom Wolf delayed the primary until June 2, but was unwilling to delay any longer. So on Tuesday, Northampton County conducted its election in the middle of a stay-at-home order as a result of a frickin' pandemic. Many pollworkers, who are elderly and at-risk, bowed out.

The two Amys managed to put on the best election I've ever witnessed.  I told you NorCo was the third County to report its results to the state, but it was actually the first in the state to complete the count at 10 pm, just two hours after the polls closed.

Critics are now saying NorCo was #1 only because it had superior technology. McClure pointed out that the XL is the same technology that was ridiculed in November.

Cozze was summoned before a delighted Council. She said the credit for this election belongs, not with the technology, but her staff.

"I cannot say enough about my staff. The hours that were put in to make this happen, and I didn't have to beg them to do it, they were there seven in the morning every day until seven, eight, nine, ten o'clock every night, Saturdays, full days .... . They can say what they want about the technology but that is not what made this election go smoothly. "

Cozze predicted it will be "twice as hard going forward" and has already compiled a "laundry list" of things that need to be done. She believes there will be 100,000 mail-in ballots in November, and an in-person turnout of 50,000.

A delighted (and relieved) Council

Council members, who had been under heavy pressure, were relieved things went well.

Lori Vargo-Heffner said, "I have nothing but compliments. ... I can't say enough about the experience. It is single-handedly the best voting experience I've ever had in my life."

Vargo-Heffner related that a pollworker told her, "I hated the thought of these things [epollbooks], but I love it."

"Anybody who came in here and trashed it should have gone to vote on Tuesday,"  Vargo-Heffner continued. She said Cozze should give her staff  "a day or some Rita's or something."

"I'll second those comments," added Council member John Cusick. "I, too, voted in person. ... When I saw those results come out as early as they did, I was shocked. I've never seen results come in that early in this County. Kudos to you. He laughingly warned Cozze, "What's going to happen is that the state is going to be calling you and you'll be asked to give advice and talks around the Commonwealth."

Council President Ron Heckman called the election " a great experience. The epollbook was flawless. ... The light was great."

Council member Kevin Lott had one complaint. "I did not get an 'I voted' sticker." Then he confessed he voted by mail.

"I'll put that in a budget amendment," quipped Cozze.

"Give him a sticker and a lollipop," added Heckman.

Unfortunately, there will be no national news stories spotlighting the success of the XL. Good news tends to be boring, but I'm sure NorCo will take it.