In 2019, Northampton County's general election was a disaster. Governor Tom Wolf had ordered all counties to replace existing machines with a system that includes a voter verifiable paper trail. Northampton County decided on the ExpressVote XL, a system that combines the convenience of touch screen voting with the added assurance of voter verifiable paper ballots. It's a good thing we had this redundancy because the touchscreens malfunctioned on election day. They came out of the factory misaligned, and that issue was missed during pre-election testing. The back-up paper ballots saved the day, but not before making several judges very nervous. Fortunately, the issues with the voter system were resolved, and the 2020 primary went off without a hitch. It was only after the general election, in which Donald Trump was defeated by Joe Biden, that GOP boss Lee Snover claimed there had been fraud. She never sued, although she did challenge ever provisional ballot cast by a Democrat.
Northampton County's elections office is possibly the best-run office in the county. Registar Amy Cozze has had results posted before nearly everyone else in the state, and has gone to great pains to train elections workers. Vagaries in the county's Home Rule Charter do raise questions about where the administration's power over elections ends and where the elections commission's authority begins. There's always room for improvement, but is the elections system itself fair, accurate and legal?
That's the question I posed to 10 candidates seeking five at-large seats,
Are you confident that elections in Northampton County are fair, accurate and legal? Explain.
Ron Heckman. - The elections in Northampton County have been and will remain fair, accurate and legal. The voting machines have been vetted and contain built-in safeguards. The election staff is a well-trained group of professionals. Finally, there is no evidence of any fraud or illegality in Northampton County’s elections.
Tara Zrinski. - I am confident that our elections were fair and accurate. I trust the numbers that were delivered by the machines, that no one voted who was not registered and that all the votes were counted.
Lori Vargo-Heffner. - Absolutely. It’s the most important function we provide. We worked very hard to fill an unfunded mandate for new machines from the governor and provided necessary equipment to ensure safe and accurate elections. We are ahead of the rest of the state in terms of efficiency with results reporting. We have ensured different options to allow more citizens to vote. Any method that denies a person the opportunity to vote is unfair and we have opted for inclusivity.
Bill McGee. - Yes, Northampton County elections department does an outstanding job on preparing and executing elections. I know there were some issues during the 2020 primary election with the new machines, however I know these problems were solved and tallies were accurate then and moving forward. I am confident that Northampton county election process are accurate, fair, and legal.
Patti Bruno. - I am confident in our system. Even during the 2019 election, I stopped in every day, to watch people hand count votes (the results were the same).
John Brown. - No response.
John Goffredo. - No response.
Nicole Romanishin. - No response.
Kristin Lorah Soldridge. - No response.
Annamarie Robertone. - No response.
what about the same person coming in 3 days a week with a handfuls of ballots stuffing the box? The idiots were taking selfies of themselves and then we were ordered to tell them no pictures allowed (they were too stupid to realize they were incriminating themselves).
ReplyDeleteAnd they didn't look like Trumpers...
Now, really. What incumbent politician would ever admit to a problem they were part of? Let’s just move along here.
ReplyDeleteWhen I grew up, I ALWAYS got a trophy or a ribbon in anything I ever did. Therefore, if I lose today, I just KNOW that someone has cheated.
ReplyDeleteI think Northampton County has straightened out the problems they had election wise.
ReplyDeleteHowever, MIB in other parts of the country have presented problems. My neighbor received a MIB from Somerset County, NJ even though he has lived in PA for 13 years. He called and asked them why he was receiving a ballot from them. They told him they mailed everyone a ballot WHO HAS EVER VOTED THERE, EVER, regardless of how long they have been gone. If you ever voted there and they had a forwarding address, you got a ballot. That's crazy!
I agree with 9:18AM. We had a nationwide mail-in ballot problem. Some, reportedly serious enough to likely change the announced winner in that voting district. See a discussion of Maricopa County, AZ. One possible problem in such cases could be the result of Voter Rolls that were not kept up to date. We’ve been assured the Northampton County Voter Rolls were up-to-date entering Election Day.
ReplyDeleteI have had multiple interactions with the elections office and have only the best things to say about the people there and the job they do. I have also witnessed Ms. Cozze address County Council, and she is always informed and informative, and extremely well prepared. It is absolutely disgraceful what one man has done to cause millions of Americans to not hold the system in high regard, and to cause them to believe it is not secure.
ReplyDelete@10:47 How can we have a "nation-wide" mail-in ballot problem? Are they all mailed through China? Do you mean that in some districts across the country, there were reported problems?
ReplyDeletePatti Bruno. - I am confident in our system. Even during the 2019 election, I stopped in every day, to watch people hand count votes
ReplyDeleteshe forgot to add that she was part of the Tin-Foil hat brigade that said the current council members must be on the take to pick the machines that they picked, but i was sadly wrong and just proved that i don't deserve your vote.