Zrinski Addresses NorCo Primary Election Failures

On Wednesday, I posted a story about NorCo Elections Comm'n meeting the previous day during which nine people (Republicans and elections workers) expressed dissatisfaction with the way the county handled May's primary. Before that meeting ever happened, there were already indications that some things were amiss. Elections Registrar Chirs Commini honestly admitted that some voters who requested mail-in ballots received them, but for the wrong party. He also acknowledged that, just like the last election cycle, some voters received the wrong ballots. 

At the post-election meeting, it became clear that redistricting created issues in which some people running for state committee no longer lived in the voting district while others who did inexplicably never appeared on the ballot. There was an even more serious problem when it was discovered that epollbooks (used to check in voters) were never updated. This means that voters who had voted by mail could also cast a vote in person. Thankfully, nobody tried, but an important safeguard designed to ensure that each person votes only once, was missing. This hardly inspires public confidence. Finally, there were the usual training errors that, to be honest, are bound to happen no matter how hard you try to prevent them. Some people who work elections only two days a year are just going to make mistakes even though former Elections Registrar Amy Cozze prepared a thick binder for elections judges with the "dos" and "don'ts" on election day. Unfortunately, thanks to 30-second videos on Tik Tok and Youtube, we now have the attention spans of a housefly. 

These problems, as I told you, prompted Republican Elections Comm'rs to move to suspend pop-up elections for the remainder of 2026 on the theory that we are simply tasking elections officials with too much. They are statutorily required to run three elections (Mail-in ballots, ballot-on demand and in-person). Before shackling them with a fourth election, why not wait until they can pull off an election without any major issues like one in which voters could easily have voted twice? Democrats disagreed, and they outnumbered the Republicans. 

Administrator Mark Aurand told the Elections Comm'rs that there was no proof that conducting four pop-up elections or that sending two people to man a satellite office for four weeks to get a measly two votes directly caused the problems that occurred. That's true, but it's certainly a fair inference.  

Executive Tara Zrinski had previously told County Council it was a "smooth" election. To her credit, she has now acknowledged the process problems at last night's meeting of NorCo Council. Though she at one point minimized them as "very few and minor hiccups," she did indicate that her office would be conducting an after-action review to determine what went right and what went wrong. 

This year, we redistricted and changed several polling locations. And although party chairs were informed, as we proceeded with the approval from the state, the Northampton Republican Party chose to sue over the registering, and therefore delayed the process. ... And the Commonwealth Court approved our districts in February, February 4th, to be exact. So I want to emphasize that redistricting in a non-residential cycle when turnout is expected to be low in a non-contentious primary. Are the optimal conditions to troubleshoot and work out income kings.

This was not the way the Elections Commission saw, the very few and minor hiccups that occurred on the 19th. An elections commission meeting was held earlier this week, and complaints were brought to the commission regarding the recent primary elections, and they will be addressed. ... 

No votes were counted twice, even if cast, because of the safeguards placed, or in place to ensure that everyone only gets one vote. Nonetheless, the commission is expected to certify the election results next week.

And for the administration, again, I want to emphasize that the primary election was conducted in a manner that was free, fair, secure and accurate. And while there were concerns raised, as there always are, in a large scale public process, we take those seriously and we continue to refine our procedures. Our elections office is already focused on improvements for fall. Over the next few months, priorities of the election office will include re-examining procedures to add quality assurance steps.

Re-evaluating several of the new polling places, getting the new electronic poll books up and running, and the office also plans to hold a post event analysis of the primary election. De collections success days that went well and basically not go well.

And the goal will be to enhance procedures for the general election in the fall.

It's true that nobody voted twice, which would be a felony. But this would not have been caught until after the election and unofficial votes were tabulated. Safeguards need to prevent that from happening at all. It is, however, encouraging that Zrinski has listened to what these people had to say and will tryo to minimize future errors. 

Whether she knows it or not, however, she made one announcement that betrays a complete misunderstanding of the Elections Commission's role. It exists to administer elections, both under the express language of the Home Rule Charter and the Elections Code. Yet the administration has taken it upon itself to purchase new epollbooks without bothering to ask the Elections Comm'n first. 

In Northampton County, the Elections Comm'n has been relegated to a perfunctory body whose sole purpose is to simply certify elections. That needs to change. 

It's understandable that things have gone in this direction. Though the elections commission is required to administer elections, it is not a salary board and has no authority to set salaries. It lacks the power of the purse, which should be jealously guarded by county council. Moreover, these officials are unelected and, though they deserve our respect and gratitude for the time they spend, they should have no say in how we spend our money. 

That is why Northampton County's Elections Commission, like the Board of Elections in counties that operate under the county code. should consist of County Council members and the Executive. During years in which the at-large members and Executive are running for election, they should be replaced by the four district Council members and a voter selected by the court to insure minority representation. If the at-large Council members and Exec all belong to the same party, the courts can pick a representative from a minority party. 

I believe this approach will fulfill both the spirit and letter of the Elections Code. It will require a change to the Home Rule Charter. I will come up with a proposal next week, and will also tell you what elese happened during a brief but interesting meeting.