NorCo Elections Chief Resigns, Will Work For Senator Bob Casey

Northampton County's Election Chief, Amy Cozze, is resigning. Today is her last day. She has accepted an offer to work as the Lehigh Valley Regional Manager for US Senator Bob Casey. 

Cozze is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Business Administration.  In the private sector, she worked at Deerfoot Auto Parts, a successful family-owned auto recycling and service business located in Wind Gap. She also started and managed her own cake bakery in Nazareth.

 In 2018, Cozze mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the state house against incumbent Joe Emrick. After that loss, she complained she was without health insurance. Executive Lamont McClure offered her a job with the county administration. 

She threw herself into elections. She was instrumental in the selection of the Express Vote XL after , visiting precincts and speaking to voters. She organized a voter outreach program in which the new system was demonstrated at over 20 locations. Only Philadelphia could match this effort to inform the public. When County Council wanted to see how this system worked in Delaware, she spent the entire day at the Diamond State, visiting precincts and speaking to voters. When problems arose in Northampton County's first use of this system, Cozze is one of a handful of county workers who worked 35 hours straight to make sure the votes were counted properly. 

In 2020, she took over the Elections Office as Registrar. In addition to successfully lobbying for e-pollbooks, she began a thorough training job for elections judges and pollworkers. She prepared an extensive handbook for pollworkers at the precincts, answering most questions that could arise at the polls. Under her leadership, the office also expanded in size

She (and her office) essentially manage three elections every Spring and Fall.  First, there are the controversial Mail-in Ballots, which have been highly controversial. Second, there's the election day polls in the middle of a pandemic. Third, she's also administered early voting at the courthouse. 

Cozze did her job despite occasional attacks from members of the Elections Commission. She had to endure the abuse of sore loser Steve Lynch, who stated several times that she was dishonest and corrupt. Moreover, she and her office endured numerous epithets from unhappy Trump voters during and after the Presidential. In addition to rather ugly letters from some voters, she and her office endured threats. On one occasion, her office received an envelope with white powder. The office had to be swept for chemical contaminants. According to Executive Lamont McClure, that incident was turned over to the Sheriff's office for investigation. 

Cozze endured this abuse with aplomb, and her office was always the first or near the first in reporting returns to the state ion election night. It was common for her and her Deputy, Amy Hess, to work 30 hours straight to ensure that results were tabulated and reported promptly. 

She now joins in the exodus of elections workers throughout the country. According to a poll conducted in 2021, one of three elections workers feels unsafe. One of five has been threatened as a result of baseless accusations and wild conspiracy theories fomented by sore losers like Steve Lynch. 

In addition to the abuse from the outside, Cozze complained that the McClure administration did nothing to help her. She noted her office works out of five different rooms on four floors, to say nothing of the warehouse at the Gracedale campus.She also complained she was muzzled,unable to speak to County Council members or the press without approval. "Nobody was looking out for us," she laments. "I had no idea they had such disregard for human capital."

Cozze has been at odds with the McClure administration over a two-step increase she insists was promised to her. When she learned that it was denied, she sent a letter resigning her post just 10 days before the election. She rescinded her resignation after Council member Lori Vargo Heffner stepped in and promised she would get her a two-step raise in a budget amendment. 

McClure would actually go on to veto that raise, which was subsequently overridden by Council.  

Needless to say, Cozze was unhappy. 

For his part, Lamont McClure denied that he ever told her to lie to anyone or that he muzzled her. He did note that protocol does require that media inquiries go through the administration. He added that the county took the white powder incident very seriously. 

He praised the work Cozze did, but added that the county has been running elections for hundreds of years without Cozze and will continue to do so without her.