Northampton County government is immersed in issues like warehouses and workforce housing. It probably focuses more time on Gracedale, the county-owned nursing home, than any other topic. As important as these issues are, they have nothing to do with county government. Elections, on the other hand, are very much a function of county government. Under the state elections code, counties are responsible for all aspects of running an election. Last Tuesday, Northampton County blew it. As a result of what Executive Lamont McClure has repeatedly called a "glitch" or minor technical error affecting only the retention votes in two Superior Court races, the entire election day was a mess. What happened certainly undermines public confidence in the integrity of our elections. There will be a meeting of the Elections Commission on November 21, 3 pm, to seek explanations from the county and from ES&S, the county's election machine vendor. I certainly would hold off on certifying results until there is more clarity. I would also hope that the meeting is on Youtube for heightened transparency.
What we know. - We know that there was a simple coding error when ES&S prepared the ExpressVote XL voting machines for the election. We also know that this error was missed during the pre-election testing of the machines, called logic and accuracy testing. Nobody bothered to check what would happen if a voter selected Yes in one race and No in another. This made the paper ballot appear as though a voted who said Yes to one judge actually said No. A court order issued sometime that morning permitted this to continue, based on assurances from the same coding experts who screwed things up that the votes were safely recorded on the touchscreen despite what the paper ballot might say. In other words, ignore the paper receipt. This is antithetical to the very purpose of that paper receipt.
Northampton County failed the public it serves in a core county function - elections, It's the second time since 2019. In 2019, we were told to forget the touch screen because the paper receipts were right. Now we are told to forget the paper receipts because the touchscreens are right. This Orwellian advice is absurd. From the point this problem was discovered, the machine voting should have stopped completely so that people could fill out emergency ballots.
What we don't know. - During a presser on election day, Charles Dertinger assured us that once this problem was discovered, elections officials were instructed to start using emergency and provisional ballots until a court order was obtained. He said some precincts ran low on emergency ballots and had to resort to provisional ballots, but everyone who wanted to vote could do so,
This is incorrect. Numerous posts on social media make very clear that some precincts actually closed shop and turned voters away. They either had no emergency ballots or quickly ran out of them. This suppressed the vote. I doubt it did so in a way that would impact the election, but this should be investigated. Every election judge should be interviewed to determine whether she closed the polling place, and if so, for how long. They should be asked to approximate how many voters were turned away. Then turnout this year should be compared to turnout in 2019, to see if it is lower. In some other precincts, election judges never turned on their phones and were blissfully unaware there was a problem.
We also don't know how the pre-election testing could be so flawed. Was this wholly ES&S or does the county bear part of the blame?
Charles in charge...3 scary words when dealing with NorCo.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the meeting should be viewable. Also, that all poll workers be interviewed. However, not by anyone in the administration. It is imperative the election Commission have an independent survey done so poll workers are not intimidated by McClure and certainly Dertinger. They will not want to say anything that they know will get them in trouble. You will probably say that is not necessary since you love McClure and Dertinger and cannot believe all the stories that you have heard about intimidation from these guys. The union offers no protection.
ReplyDeleteSadly, there are numerous videos of people being told the poll is closed or the machines are down and come back some time later. One might ask why They didn't use their phones to check? In one a voter is seen questioning that and is told the county made the decision.
You and the administration can downplay this all you want but it is a serious breach of trust and confidence in the one actual Job McClure and Dertinger have. Mo number of big checks and photo ops can fix this mess. It must be independently investigated. If no satisfactory protection can be assured, then new machines must be brought in. McClure has the money hidden for his Health Center they will push next year. I think the citizens of the county would prefer the millions he plans to spend on that unnecessary company be used to ensure a safe and fair election.
I second this! Must be someone NOT from within that Tower of Power. If interviewed by someone “in house” would be the same as admitting guilt.
DeleteWe see the election system is now not trusted by any thinking person. The idea of using paper ballots, counted by each district at the end of the election day is still the best system.
ReplyDeleteAlso, mail in ballots open up the possibility of enormous opportunities for fraud. Anyone who does not understand this id either just plain naive or is interested in fraud.
It appears the election system in this country is now the worst system in the world.
We see third world countries with paper ballots and purple thumbs, simple and less risk of fraud.
A full, INDEPENDENT investigation must be conducted to restore integrity to NorCo elections. It's the most important function of county government. NorCo used to be the best in the state. It is now arguably the worst, due in no small part to the uninformed/incorrect/dishonest explanations by Dertinger. That part of the story is clear. Every day he continues to serve is flipping the bird to the electorate.
ReplyDeleteThese same problems have been common all across the nation for several years now. This is NOT acceptable. Questioning final announced totals has been increasingly necessary going back as far as the 2020 election. Making elections quick and easy over a multi-day period was a worthy goal. Unfortunately, we weren’t ready back in 2020 and we’re STILL not ready to faithfully execute all the steps along the chain of custody even now. Everyone knows computer technology is vulnerable to human input/output errors and, yes, foul play.
ReplyDeleteOur recent Northampton County problems were not foul play. But, surely we’re a lack of quality control and preparedness by both the equipment vendor and product consumer, our County staff. This is very disturbing and must be rectified NOW.
As i said before on another blog--the whole election needs to be a do over except for the mail-ins or drop off ballots at the election office. Any vote at any pole has to be a do over. The election committee should NOT validate this election. As a committee member i would not vote to certify it. Schedule a new date to hold a new election.
ReplyDeleteWhere was Northampton County's Election Solicitor through all this? Was that Solicitor even in the building? What about Rudas?
ReplyDeleteNo one could be expected to fill Comrade Terra's spacious birkenstocks, this is a new era for planet Earth, Gaia and the party members of Deep Green Resistance.
ReplyDeleteBLUE BADGER
This is an epic failure on the part of county government. Someone needs to go, or even more faith is lost.
ReplyDeleteAlso, asking the dumb question here - why does "logic" have anything to do with it? This is simple vote tabulation, as basic as it gets. In my opinion Bernie, and I know this is not popular and is expensive - get rid of these machines. That they could not record a "yes" vote as a "yes" vote is beyond.
Lets be honest Charles and Amy Cozze screwed this up (the same issue as the first time the ES&S machines were used) it was she who picked theses machines and he who has had his thumb on the elections division since McClure showed up. And yes I know Cozze is gone but that dose not excuse her from blame for picking trash when they couldn't stop saying how hard she worked to find the Right machines.... F**k up to moved up the American way.
ReplyDeleteAll the right people won so there is no fault at the county level.
ReplyDelete“Clement MaNoor. “ Thats just funny.
DeleteThese ESS machines need to be done away with! Paper ballots filled out by the voters are needed. They can then be scanned or hand counted as needed. McClure should trash these machines and make ESS pay back whatever they have been paid. That can pay to transition to something else since they can’t do the job.
ReplyDelete"Where was Northampton County's Election Solicitor through all this? Was that Solicitor even in the building? What about Rudas?"
ReplyDeleteAn election solicitor is always on hand for elections problems, but they have no magic wands and are unable to fix broken machines by saying something in Latin. I do agree that once the paper ballot receipt started coming out differently than the touch, I would have suspended use of the machine no matter what ES&S told me about the votes still being safely stored in the background. I would have insisted the county use emergency ballots.
"Also, asking the dumb question here - why does "logic" have anything to do with it?"
Logic has everything to do with this. As I explained in a previous post. A single race with just four choices has 24 permulations. A municipal ballot has several hundred races and they must all be tested.
"Also, asking the dumb question here - why does "logic" have anything to do with it? "
Actually, the single easiest way to encourage vote fraud is through paper ballots on election day. That's the main reason governments began using machines.
The sick part of election errors being discovered in today’s America is that winners of suspicious results either keep their mouths shut, or deny there is any proof, even though evidence of failure is widely seen by others. The end result is all that matters, not what damage is done to the reputation of the system or to other individuals.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see a return to one day voting, self-contained machines, and heavily regulated early voting under rigid standards. We can all learn from what is finally being discovered in other areas of the country.
Not only did this county administration fail to do one of their most important core functions , they have also opened up serious trust concerns with these machines for one of the most important presidential elections ever. Who is offering a guarantee these machines won’t fail during the next election?
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls the curtain back - “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain “. It’s basically what McClure and Dertinger are trying to do here. Glad to see that you’ve come to your senses on some things and now realize that this is huge and was just a tune up for 2024.
ReplyDeleteDirtinger took his eye off the ball. His arrogance resulted in an embarrassment to the McClure administration. He should resign.
ReplyDeleteIf people were turned away at the polls or unable to vote, it would not be on the scale to affect the County gov't results. But some races at the borough, township or school board level were decided by single digit or narrow margins, and those election results may have been affected.
ReplyDeleteAs a Never Trumper Republican who wants to believe that MIBs and Election Day voting is on the level- along comes The Clown Show of NorCo once again to shake that belief. If anyone doesn’t think this benefited Democratic candidates rather than Republican candidates then you’re crazy. Republicans more likely vote in person. Democrats grind it out with MIBs. Those are the facts. Now you’re going to let an an hearing committee listen to anecdotal proof about how many voters were turned away on Election Day be accepted as accurate evidence of same. Preposterous… Lamont must have gotten a hell of a lot of Steak dinners from this Vendor of Voting Machines.
ReplyDeleteVoter ID seems reasonable and would strengthen election integrity, regardless of how ballots are cast. Other countries with better elections than ours, require ID. It seems ridiculous that we don't.
ReplyDelete"If people were turned away at the polls or unable to vote, it would not be on the scale to affect the County gov't results. But some races at the borough, township or school board level were decided by single digit or narrow margins, and those election results may have been affected."
ReplyDeleteI doubt any of the county-wide or district council races were affected. I doubt that city races were affected. Turnout is 5% higher this year than it was in the municipal four years ago. More people voted. But there were no MIBs in 2019. I will be looking at the down ballot races and hope that the county does this as well. If there are races where a handful of votes makes a difference, that's a problem.
Will it bring back my opportunity to vote? Not interested in excuses at this point. Mc Clure knew of previous issues with these voting machines and ignored the trustworthiness of them but is obviously interested in using these same machines in the upcoming presidential election. With regard to this issue he is incompetent and as a result should resign. In my opinion the election of our public officials is one of the most important fundamental rights we have as Americans and should remain unfettered.
ReplyDeletePermutations? Bernie it's a "yes" or "no." You tally up the "yes" votes and the "no" votes. What happens in another race or ballot should have no bearing at all on the tally of any individual race or question.
ReplyDeleteThis is about as basic a math question as there is, and this software could not handle it?
I hate conspiracies but my gut is screaming that there's something else here....
Get other machines sue the company. Let them pay for not doing due diligence.
ReplyDeleteIt should be a winnable lawsuit given their past performance. As far as the races affected I have no viable solution.
I voted at approximately 130 pm. The person there just got notification that the paper will say no if you vote yes and vice versa for judge retention. We were to let them know if we saw any other problems. This is almost seven hours into voting. He was obviously flustered. I wonder what the people before us were told?
ReplyDeleteSo now the conspiracy theories are being spun because McClure, Dertinger, and Cozze failed to demonstrate real reasoning as to why the machines failed. It’s easy, they had the same “flipping” and “screen sensitivity “ and some flawed labor help to recreate the same mess in 2019. As long as no one answers “why”, the crazy conspirators theories will “spin” their falsehoods to their minions. What a mess
ReplyDeleteHere’s a question: if McClure was enraged and so upset , why doesn’t he use his lawyerly anger and take ESS 2.9 million dollar contract to task for “ breach of performance” issue, Sue the bastards, then fire those individuals who touched the machines during the pre test runs.
ReplyDeleteAt least there would be an “attempt” at accountability! It will be impossible to restore trust about the machines performance for 2024.
A few points:
ReplyDelete1) Cozze was not the register during the 2019 debacle. She was appointed after the election fiasco in 2019.
2) The Express Vote XL was recommended by the Elections Comm'n in March 2019, contrary to what some readers have said. Supporters included GOP Chair Lee Snover.
3) The Express Vote XL was approved by County Council in a 8-1 vote in 2019.
ReplyDeleteWasn’t it Dertinger who directed Cozze to review and report on the Express voting machine and and she then addressed council on HER findings?
Wasn’t there another voting machine to be demonstrated to council that never was done?
Wasn’t the Express machine the favorite, even with you, during all the reviews?
The fact that the 2019 fiasco with the Express machine failure, the amount of money expended, and the damage to public trust in the voting integrity proved that the machines and ESS clearly did not correct that which they publicly announced that they could then, and now for 2024.
Fake news fake elections What is next?
ReplyDelete