At an Erie County Board of Elections special meeting, members of Erie County Council voted 4–3 to remove Councilman Jim Wertz as chairman.

Republican members Charlie Bayle and Ellen Schauermann joined Democratic members Jim Winarski and Erie County Council Chairman Terry Scutella in voting “yes,” while the remaining Democratic member Rock Copeland, Chris Drexel, and Jim Wertz—voted “no.”

“You can call it bipartisan by party affiliation, but I think the people who were here today and those who watched the meeting online would recognize that it was something different,” Wertz said.

Wertz also believes this sets a bad precedent for Erie County Council moving forward.

“I have seen Council in the past simply overlook much larger issues with no action, and here we are, so choices were made and ultimately we are where we are,” Wertz said.

Those voting in favor of removing Wertz from the position said it was due to a conflict of interest involving Wertz and discussions he had with a group, Elections Truth Alliance, which, on November 11, 2025, filed a lawsuit “against the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth, Al Schmidt, and the Boards of Elections of Allegheny, Cambria, and Erie counties to compel hand-count audits of the 2024 U.S. general election.”

Erie County Council Chairman Terry Scutella defended his vote, saying removing Wertz was a move to protect the integrity of the election office and the people who work in it.

“We voted for him 7–0, and he came to me right before we started our election board meetings and said he would like to do that—and rightfully so. He ran the Democratic Party for many years, and I never had a problem with that. But when a conflict of interest comes up, you have to do something to protect this office and the people who work in it.”

“If there was a conflict of interest in this, then we would never have another public meeting, because every single member of Council would be conflicted by some interaction they have had in the public,” Wertz said.

Chris Drexel, who served as Vice Chair, will now be in the role of Chairman.