ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners held a first reading Wednesday on legislation amending the county\u2019s 2026-30 capital plan to purchase five additional secure ballot drop boxes.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by Commissioner Sheila Alvarado, the proposal allocates $157,990 from the Election and Integrity Grant Fund for five Runbeck Elections Services Sentinel Smart Dropbox units, including service, maintenance and support.<\/p>\n
Placed at five locations across the county, the boxes will operate 24\/7, scan outer ballot envelopes upon deposit and capture digital images of voters returning ballots.<\/p>\n
The county said 29,213 voters had requested mail-in ballots for the November election.<\/p>\n
Alvarado stated that the additional drop boxes will give voters more options amid growing mail delivery concerns \u2014 benefiting seniors, caregivers, working families and others with voting obstacles.<\/p>\n
Commissioner and co-sponsor April Riddick noted that the county should have expanded its drop-box network sooner, adding that new locations will particularly assist residents in areas such as Whitehall Township and Macungie Borough.<\/p>\n
She also cited college students and residents who work or attend school away from home as people who can benefit from expanded access.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur democracy is being questioned,\u201d Riddick said, adding that voters need additional opportunities to make their voices heard.<\/p>\n
Commissioners Ron Beitler and Geoff Brace raised questions about the timeline for implementing the proposal, emphasizing the need to balance voter access with security and proper administration.<\/p>\n
Beitler said proposals that expand access also must address legitimate security and administrative concerns. He said the compressed timeline for deploying the equipment warrants careful consideration.<\/p>\n
County Executive Josh Siegel said the county has a responsibility to make voting accessible while maintaining confidence in the election process.<\/p>\n
Siegel said the proposed machines would build on the county\u2019s existing election system and include safeguards such as ballot tracking, audit capabilities, barcodes and photographs of people depositing ballots.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould be very easy to vote and hard to cheat,\u201d Siegel said.<\/p>\n
The legislation would require a second reading before final adoption. Commissioners indicated the measure is expected to return for consideration Sept. 23.<\/p>\n
Election and Registration Commission<\/p>\n
The proposal comes as the county prepares for a Nov. 3 referendum that would amend the Home Rule Charter and expand the Election and Registration Commission from three voting members to five.<\/p>\n
Commissioners are also considering creating a working group to develop an application for residents seeking appointment to the expanded commission. The group would be responsible for preparing an application for Board of Commissioners\u2019 approval, with a draft expected for consideration at the board\u2019s Oct. 28 meeting.<\/p>\n
Digital forensics lab gets $10K donation<\/p>\n
Commissioners also accepted a $10,000 donation from the Officer David M. Petzold Memorial Foundation to support the county\u2019s digital forensics laboratory at DeSales University.<\/p>\n
The money will be used to purchase a new Talino workstation for the Officer David M. Petzold Digital Forensics Laboratory of Lehigh County, which assists law enforcement agencies in Lehigh and Northampton counties with digital forensics investigations.<\/p>\n
The foundation was established in memory of Upper Saucon Township Police Officer David M. Petzold, who was killed in the line of duty in 2006. It has contributed more than $250,000 in cash and in-kind donations to the laboratory over the years.<\/p>\n
Christine Petzold thanked the county for its continued support of the foundation and the laboratory.<\/p>\n
She said the foundation is proud of the work accomplished at the lab and the way it continues Officer Petzold\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very happy to be able to provide support to the Petzold lab,\u201d Petzold said.<\/p>\n
She said the laboratory is important because it continues to protect Lehigh County residents nearly 20 years after David Petzold\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Alvarado thanked the foundation and said the laboratory continues to honor Petzold\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n
Fevig, who said she lives in Upper Saucon Township, also thanked the foundation for continuing its work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners held a first reading Wednesday on legislation amending the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1930,119,121,120,14203,79853,118906,118908,4158,836,118031,69811,902,744,4163,433,13135,118907,55866,28,4162,386,50,117757,1824],"class_list":["post-285253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-accountability","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-ballot","tag-ballot-box","tag-ballot-drop-boxes","tag-county-commission","tag-democracy","tag-election","tag-election-and-registration-commission","tag-election-security","tag-elections","tag-government","tag-group-decision-making","tag-lehigh-county","tag-mail-in-ballots","tag-officer-david-m-petzold","tag-organized-events","tag-pennsylvania","tag-political-corruption","tag-political-events","tag-politics","tag-voter-access","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}