The Northampton County Election Commission this week grilled elections department leadership about numerous issues that occurred during the May 19 primary election.
Though there are no known cases of irregularities or fraud, election commissioners said multiple Election Day blunders related to mail-in ballots, redistricting and voting machines were concerning and should not have occurred.
“The efficacy of these elections are everything,” said Commissioner Shawn Welch. “If people don’t believe it’s run above board for whatever reason, be it malfeasance or just you’re just chasing your tail, whatever it is, we failed. We have to create a process here that people are assured that everything is on the up and up.”
Under questioning from commissioners, Registrar of Elections Christopher Commini acknowledged that there were multiple issues on Election Day, but said they were all reported and addressed promptly, and all ballots were properly cast and counted.
Commini said 46,714 votes were cast in the primary election out of 231,212 registered voters in the county, a roughly 20% participation rate. He also said that the post-election audit was completed and found no discrepancies. A county spokesperson said that election results will be certified between Monday and June 12.
One issue concerned voting machines that broke down and stopped functioning. Commini said they believe the 90-degree temperatures and high humidity of Election Day led to some machines jamming. At one polling station, two machines went down early in the morning, with one needing to be replaced entirely. He said during this incident, 12 voters needed to file provisional ballots. Additionally, at some locations, machines needed to be reset due to mechanical issues.
A major focus of the meeting, however, was an issue where due to human error, polling stations started out the day without the list of voters who had received mail-in ballots.
Commini said that electronic poll books are updated with mail-ballot information two weeks prior to Election Day. However, he said someone updated the books with the wrong file, and the error was not recognized until Election Day.
He said staff took immediate action and informed polling stations that they were coming with updated information. Commini said that they sent text messages to all polling places asking them to call the elections department for instructions, though not every judge of election responded to that text.
However, according to a commissioner and two poll workers who spoke Tuesday, updating the books was another issue.
Robert Jellison, majority inspector for Moore Township East, said his precinct did not receive the updated mail ballot list until 11:30 a.m., at which point they determined that 192 people could have been able to vote twice before the books were updated. There’s no indication, however, that any of those voters cast multiple votes, and Commini confirmed that no double voting occurred as a result of the error.
Joan Skutches, election judge for Bushkill Township Cherry Hill precinct, said the instructions about updating the pollbook were sent to her personal cell phone rather than one issued by the county, and she did not see those instructions until 7:45 p.m.
She said despite this, there were no irregularities in voting.
Welch said at one polling station he visited on Election Day, he had to help the workers update their electronic poll books because they didn’t understand the process.
Commini said that the election department was updating the software of its electronic poll books so that they would be more secure and future issues like this would not occur.
Other issues
Another Election Day issue concerned Northampton County’s recent redistricting, which changed polling places for some voters. Some people who were unaware of the change reported to the wrong polling place. Others received mailers telling them to go to the wrong polling places.
Additionally, because of bureaucratic hiccups, there were individuals who ran for local party positions and ended up being elected to represent areas they did not live in. While the new districts were in effect by the time candidates petitions were due, litigation delayed review by the Pennsylvania Department of State. Because of this, some petitions were filed and accepted for local party positions in districts that no longer existed on in which the person did not live.
Welch said that he visited 14 polling stations on May 19 and what he heard repeatedly from poll workers was frustration over a lack of training and training materials.
He said he heard about instances where poll workers didn’t know how to switch between Republican and Democrat on the voting machines, leaving the task to voters, which is not permitted within the election process. He added that there were also poll workers who did not fully understand the process of spoiling mail ballots to make them unusable.
Voters who receive a mail ballot but decide to vote at the polls are allowed to do so if they bring their mail ballot with them to be destroyed.
Commini said election workers were trained on how to switch parties within the machines.
“The voter is not allowed to select the party on the system. It’s supposed to be the machine operator that does it. And I make the comment, this is not a game of what’s your favorite color and what party do you feel like being today? Whatever they are registered as, that’s how they are supposed to vote,” Commini said.
However, Commini said if anyone voted outside their party in the primary, it would be impossible to know.
County election commission officials also voiced frustration about a lack of communication from the county. Commissioner Becky Bartlett said that they requested at their May 5 meeting the county provide press releases it sent out related to the election, but she received none of them. Election Commission Vice Chair Scott Hough lamented feeling like they were in the dark as to what county government was doing, which impeded the commission’s work.
Northampton County has had previous election issues. In 2023, errors in a state judge election caused by voting machine bugs led to the county’s director of administration resigning. And with previous election issues in mind, Welch and Hough made the case that they believed the issues with Northampton County’s elections were related to misallocation of human resources. However, Commini, when repeatedly asked by Hough if his office was adequately staffed, did not provide a direct answer.
Welch said he believed ensuring elections ran without a hitch was their primary job of the commission and the department right now is a failure.
“The biggest issue with election integrity is once a ballot is cast, the trail is broken, you can’t do anything. You have no remedy,” Welch said.