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| Erika Lynn in hot seat |
I have known Everett (Erika) a long time. He was one of those who stood up for minority merchants on Hamilton Street in 2007 when LANTA summarily eliminated several stops that essentially ruined their businesses.
Republicans claim their sole motivation is to insure voter integrity, regardless of who the candidates are, or even to what party they belong. I suppose a cynic might wonder if they feel that Santiago would be a weaker opponent against their candidate come November, except that there is none.
No Republican is running in the race.
It is my impression that Election Chief Clerk Tim Benyo runs a tight office in Lehigh County. However, I suppose that the process can never suffer from too much scrutiny.
But be careful what you wish for. I've been hearing ugly rumors about this race. The parties spreading these stories are unwilling to speak on the record, so I am unwilling to repeat them. But they have nothing to do with Everett or Erika. If the rumors are true, this story will continue.
Blogger's Note: This story was a co-written by fellow blogger Michael Molovinsky.
9 comments:
If one is so committed that one should be committed, it is easy to understand the commitment to commit the act allegedly committed. Make Dystopia Great Again.
This story is troubling on many levels.
First, I don't think anybody other than the voter is allowed to make any mark on a ballot. Surely Bickford knows this, having been an election judge for many years. So even by his own admission, he has committed what I believe is a felony offense.
While your "impression" might be that Benyo runs a tight ship, the fact that Bickford felt comfortable violating Election Law INSIDE THE LEHIGH COUNTY GOVERNMENT CENTER, WHERE BENYO HAS HIS OFFICE, likely speaks more to the truth of how tight of a ship is actually being run.
Had this been the general election, I doubt we would have ever heard about this happening in Allentown. I don't think such fraud is confined the close race in question, and is likely used at multiple, predominantly democrat districts in the city during our general elections to run up the vote totals for democrat candidates. It's just that this time it was used against a democrat candidate of color in the democrat primary.
As an aside, I find it interesting that the local democrat machine (through Bickford and likely others) was actively working for Pete Schweyer. I'm sure Ms. Santiago naively believed that her party was the party of inclusion, and that as a Latina she'd have a fair opportunity to win in a heavy democrat district that was specifically created for Latinos. I can only imagine how the reality of the truth has hit her like a bucket of cold water in the face.
Finally, it should not take a local political party to file this complaint. It should have come from Tim Benyo and the Voter Registration Office immediately after it was discovered. Doing so would have sent a clear message that election fraud will not be tolerated by the county. By doing nothing, Benyo has sent the opposite message.
Since Benyo still has his position, one can only assume that allowing election fraud comes from those above him since neither the County Executive nor the Director of Administration has spoken out against what happened. Interestingly, the Director of Administration is also the chair of the local democrat party. That is entirely inappropriate* for the #2 position in the county. That neither the County Executive nor the Director of Administration seem bothered by this conflict of interest speaks volumes to THEIR fitness for office.
I have no idea as to whether District Attorney Martin will pursue these charges, but he should. People expect their elections to be fair, and when there's a violation it should be pursued vigorously. A jury should decide whether there was wrongdoing done, instead of a decision being made by political insiders in a backroom of county government.
* Not sure, but the Voter Registration may report directly to the Director of Administration. Either way, for the Director of Administration to be the chair of the local party is inappropriate.
Bickford contended that he was only darkening those circles already inadequately filled in by voters. But some say he was darkening them for just one of the candidates, incumbent State Rep. Pete Schweyer.
Either way, it is totally unacceptable for anyone to alter a ballot once it has been submitted. He/she knew this.
There should be a new election, as it appears nobody knows how many he tampered with before he was caught. Who can say he didn't darken one choice when neither candidate was voted for?
I'm a NorCo R and don't like much about my county government. The primary election was very very smoothly run and very expeditiously concluded, giving this minority party member great confidence in the process. That this happened at all indicates a ship that's not very tight at all. Small leaks sink big ships. Shame on Lehigh. I wouldn't trust their management of any election until this is brightly exposed and addressed. It seems a felony was committed and confessed to, and should punished harshly.
11:57 -
I agree that it's highly likely that he darkened in a choice (or choices) when neither candidate was voted for. You don't go down that road for just one or two ballots.
Still, I'm not sure how you can re-do the election.
Without an admission by Bickford of how many he may have altered, it's going to be difficult or impossible to ever know just how many votes he changed. And even if he did admit to an amount that changed the election result, the election's already been certified.
But no matter what happened, I suspect Bickford was doing the bidding of the local democrat party and he wasn't the only one doing the same thing.
The democrat party damn sure isn't going to allow another election. Their candidate already "won", and there's no way they're going to allow a Hispanic representative in the Hispanic district without their approval.
I suspect the party will eventually offer Santiago something to just let it go.
The look on the face of the gentlemen to the immediate right, provides my comment, verbatim. Thank you.
anon 2:39 wrote: "agree that it's highly likely that he darkened in a choice (or choices) when neither candidate was voted for."
I actually know Bickford, I think he did only what he claimed, which was to darken those pale circles which he felt were too faintly marked to be read by the scanner. Knowing him, I doubt that he had a preference for either candidate, and if he did have a personal preference, it would have probably been Santiago. He's not a mainstream type of guy.....
not one ballot was altered,there was no white out, voters brought the pens in and she continues using Peters kids in her arguments which is wrong .the machine would have rejected any ballot with a black mark and a white mark. she also Bernie had a campaign staff sitting too close to the poll with a huge sign 3 ft from the steps, she openly wore her Santiago shirt into polls and helped voters fill in their ballots mmmm ty michael NO VOTES WERE ALTERED
BiCKFORD ALTERED NO VOTES THERE WAS NO WHITE OUT EVEN IF THERE HAD BEEN THE BALLOT WOULD HAVE BEEN REJECTED BY THE MACHINE Santiago won the 3rd ward 2 to 1 . Altered according to Webster means change no ballots were changed.
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