The Presidential election scheduled for November 5 includes a referendum question on term limits for the District Attorney pursuant to an Ordinance adopted last year. Commini told Council that November's election "is probably the most consequential that we're ever going to see." He said he was concerned that including a question on the ballot might cause a problem with the Express Vote XL and said that the problems in 2019 and 2023 were caused by the addition of a question.
This is simply wrong. The problems in 2019 involved improperly aligned machines and retention votes, and those in 2023 involved a coding error and retention votes. There has never been an issue with referenda questions.
Commini then went on to ask Council to move the referendum question scheduled for November to the next year's municipal primary to avoid any potential issues it could cause in a Presidential election.
His request betrays his own lack of confidence in our voting system. He said he wanted to avoid "another human error issue on a question." His request was rightly and flatly rejected.
Council member John Goffredo told Commini, "If we have this hard of a time getting a machine to answer a simple Yes or No question, we need to seriously consider why we're using the machines. We passed an ordinance, which is now law. It needs to be on and that's it. If you can't get it done, we're going to have to continue to find people who can do it. I don't know why this is being brought to us, I have no idea, it seems ridiculous."
Council President Lori Vargo Heffner told Commini that County Council is willing to appropriate whatever resources are needed to ensure a smooth election but does not wish to see perceived problems pushed down the road. "This is our business, and this is our job. We want to support you in doing your job."
Postponing a vote would be the exact opposite.
"We need to have confidence that we can do this right," added Goffredo. "It should be a priority for this administration to have this on there. I hope you [put] everybody's minds at ease and say, yes, no problem, with these sophisticated expensive machines."
"No problem," responded Commini.
7 comments:
Do I believe that the question should be on the November ballot when more people will vote on it? Yes.
Do I believe we should pay attention and be concerned when a high-ranking county official in charge of voting clearly has little to no confidence in the machines that will be used in the presidential election?
Hell yeah!
Both Commitas and Bernieonitas are correct. We should be wary of the question, and the machines should be expected to handle the question.
Stunning. This incompetent should resign immediately after apologizing to taxpayers. A grown up should be appointed right away. Wow. Just. Wow.
At least Chris isn’t willing to gamble on the Election. See what I did there ? It’s on Council now. They’ll try to have it both ways, but it’s on them.
Geesh. There’s an endorsement of confidence in the election machines. Yikes!
Ask Muncy and Geisinger ….fellow R’s if they feel the same as Chris…..
Who’s in charge of Cimmini? Shouldn’t they know what’s going on? Every office has a member of admin that is responsible. Whoever it is should know the election process and how the machine works.
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