Last week, I told you that at least one mail-in ballot was mailed out by the elections office on the Easton City Council District 2 race between Julie Zando-Dennis and Sharbell Koorie. A voter in District 2 called Koorie after receiving a MIB for a City Council race in another district in which there is only one unopposed The elections office conceded the error and explained that an elections worker made the mistake of placing the wrong ballot in the envelope intended for a District 2 voter. They minimized the possibility that others have received the wrong ballot by saying they received no calls. Apparently, they were wrong. It was no one-off. It was a systemic failure by elections officials affecting dozens of voters.
This is what Julie Zando-Dennis, one of the candidates, posted on her Facebook page.
District 2 Ballot Alert – What Voters Deserve to Know
As your Democratic candidate for Easton City Council – District 2, I want to share a critical update about a ballot error affecting our West Ward community.
On October 27, Northampton County officials publicly described the issue of a voter receiving the wrong mail-in ballot as a “one-off” incident. But when I followed up directly with the Election Office on October 28, I was told “a couple of dozen” ballots were affected. Today, October 29, that number has grown to 48 incorrect ballots.
This is not a one-off. Voters deserve clarity.
Affected ballots were labeled correctly for District 2 but contained the wrong candidates—specifically, a District 3 ballot listing Susan Hartranft-Bittinger, who is unopposed in that race.
If you received a mail-in ballot and it does not list both District 2 candidates—Julie Zando-Dennis (Democrat) and Sharbel Koorie (Republican)—please call the Northampton County Election Office immediately at 610-829-6500 to request the correct ballot.
Based on my campaign’s count, there are 132 Democratic mail-in voters in District 2. If Republican mail-in voters total roughly the same, that’s approximately 264 mail-in ballots overall. With 48 ballots affected, this error touches 18.18% of all mail-in ballots—a significant portion of our voting base.
It’s also important to note: Democrats are statistically more likely than Republicans to vote by mail, making this error especially concerning for Democratic representation in District 2.
I asked the Election Office how many of the 48 incorrect ballots were sent to registered Democrats or Republicans. They declined to provide that information, citing legal restrictions. I’ve formally requested the specific statute that prohibits disclosure of this data. Every vote matters. Every voter deserves accuracy. I will continue to advocate for transparency and accountability to ensure your voice is heard. Thank you for standing with me and for staying vigilant.
Both Julie and Sharbel have been let down by the elections office. More importantly, it is you the voter who has been let down.
Not good. Screw up after screw up!
ReplyDeleteWhat idiot is in charge of the ballots in Easton? Panto?
ReplyDeleteHe should do the decent thing and resign.
Being in charge of something as important as this and screwing it up should mean an automatic ejection from office!
You have no idea what you are talking about
DeleteElections are a County responsibility, not Easton.
DeleteYeah. I trust MIB voting.
ReplyDeleteLooking NATIONWIDE, there are dozens of reports of Mail-In ballot problems that are documented. Much of it refers to Voter Rolls that are dirty.
DeleteWe have a long way to go to reach public confidence in this method of voting. Small, down-ballot contests are in most jeopardy of producing accurate winners.
This was done on purpose. What a criminally crooked election office in this country. It's time for the feds to step in, as the state would simply condone this debacle.
ReplyDeleteWay more Dems than Reps get MIBs this is going to hurt the Dem candidate more than the Rep and with so few days to go it’s not going to be fixed, insanely bad.
ReplyDeleteCan we just go back to having an Election DAY? How hard is it to go to a polling place and vote? For those who are unable to get to a polling place on Election Day, there is a process already in place to cast your vote via absentee ballot. It’s really not too much to ask that those who want a say in the choosing of elected representatives are at least competent enough to follow 1 of 2 very simple processes to cast that vote.
ReplyDelete