NorCo Elections Comm'n Finishes Review of Challenged Ballots

After three days of hearings, Northampton County's Elections Commission finished its review of 480 challenged ballots yesterday. It will meet again on Monday and vote on certifying the results. That is the county deadline for certifying results to the state. Certification by the state would be delayed only if 100 or more voters petition a state court by November 23 and allege that the election was illegally conducted.

Northampton County's Elections Commission is comprised of five members. They belong to the two parties with the highest number of votes in the most recent general election. The Republican members are  Maudenia Hornick and Frank L DeVito. Hornick, who happens to sister to county GOP boss Lee Snover, is the Chair. 

The Democratic contingent consists of Dr. Alan Brau, Daniel Lopresti and Gail W Preuninger. Dr. Brau is a physician and is undoubtedly deluged with Covid-19 cases. He was understandably unavailable, but all other members were present at yesterday's hearing, conducted in the courthouse cafeteria as the sun descended and darkness fell.

Attorney Rick Santee is certainly one of the Lehigh Valley's top litigators. He would be proud of his namesake and son, who has done an outstanding job providing legal assistance to the Commission in uncharted waters among two recent changes to state election law.  Ricky, as they called him, kept a lid on the fiery debates that sometimes erupted. 

Attorney Michael Snover, husband of GOP boss Lee Snover and brother-in-law of the Elections Chair, represented Republicans. He and his wife are largely responsible for the 480 challenges. He started things off by droning on for about 15 minutes about issues that are being decided at a higher level.   

Attorney Gary Asteak, who now is as much at ease behind the wheels of a tractor as he is in a courtroom, represented Democrats. He made clear that his party challenged no ballots, even GOP ballots that appeared to be facially defective. "We did not raise spurious arguments like the Republicans did," he noted. "We wanted every vote to count."     

Asteak was at times incensed at challenges brought against persons of color or with Spanish-sounding names, while Republican precincts went untouched. "We'd probably have to rent Cottingham Stadium to hear all the people you want to get rid of," he responded when Snover complained about inactive voters who still are registered and thus were able to vote. 

The Elections Commission pretty much took the same approach that was followed in Lehigh, where there was no rancor or binoculars. If a mistake on a ballot was the fault of an elections official, it was not held against the voter. If, however, a voter failed to sign his ballot twice, his vote was rejected. 

Gail Prueninger made an eloquent argument in favor of accepting a ballot so long as it was signed once, but it failed to sway her colleagues. 

Amazingly, Republicans even challenged the validity of some signatures, though they had no experts on hand. 

On Facebook, Lee Snover has implied that chicanery occurred during the count. On Parler, the new GOP social media platform, she has even passed along a story suggesting that Philly mob bosses threw the election to Biden, But her husband failed to produce any evidence of fraud or even improper conduct. The facts were against him. The law was against him. So what he did do was abuse his opponent. He attacked Voting Registrar Amy Cozze. Rick Santee stopped him. 

Just as the voters stopped Trump.