Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure and an official representing the voting machine company at the center of a malfunction that affected thousands of votes defended the county’s Nov. 7 election in the face of a barrage of questions Thursday night from an angry County Council.
The issues also are leading the county’s Republican Party to consider a challenge to the certification of election results, which is expected to occur next week.
Officials on Election Day blamed a clerical error committed by workers from the county and Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Nebraska, the voting-machine company contracted by the county in 2019, which resulted in some votes showing up incorrectly in paper printouts.
That essentially remained the answer to what went wrong at Thursday’s meeting, despite council’s pointed, sometimes heated questions for McClure. Some on the council suggested regretting their votes to approve a five-year, multimillion-dollar contract ES&S.
“This is our democracy, and when people lose faith [in voting] you don’t have a democracy anymore,” said council member John Goffredo, who came on the board after the ES&S contract.
“Data entry, human error, that is understandable but unacceptable,” added council member John Brown, a former county executive.
The county’s 300-plus machines in all 156 precincts flipped “yes” and “no” selections for two candidates for state Superior Court retention on a printout that voters reviewed on the machine before taking the final step to cast their ballots.
No other contests on the ballot were affected, but the error in the retention vote forced county officials to scramble to distribute paper emergency and provisional ballots to nearly 2,400 residents. That slowed the counting, which was completed Wednesday.
A lack of paper ballots exacerbated the slowness, officials said on Election Day. McClure said Thursday he was told a previous election director, whom he did not name, decided not to send the ballots to the precincts and the current registrar, Christopher Commini, continued the practice he inherited when he took the role about two years ago.
McClure also said judges of election are given a cellphone for use in case of emergencies, but some did not use them or look at them when they were being contacted about the problem. That led, some on council said, to poll workers taking steps such as advising people to return later instead of following county-prescribed instructions.
“I find it unbelievable … turning people away from the polls,” council member Ronald Heckman said.
Another problem that arose Election Day, according to those who spoke, included a lack of privacy for voters filling out paper ballots.
‘Lack of imagination’
Adam Carbullido, vice president of ES&S, said the mistake occurred in labeling for the Superior Court seats. He said long titles sometimes are abbreviated on the voting cards used with the machines. Information for the retention candidates “was entered incorrectly and ended up being wrong,” he said.
Despite the error, Carbullido said results were tabulated and reported accurately.
McClure, who previously used “laziness” to describe the problem, said Thursday it was a “lack of imagination” by both company and county personnel for not anticipating that such a problem could occur.
Carbullido said company officials will implement several steps to ensure the mistake does not happen again, including cards printed with county-approved language for candidates, and that the information is better proof-read to identify any “mislabeled matches.”
“Humans do make mistakes, but we’re here and committed to working with Northampton County to make sure these mistakes never occur again,” he said.
Some on council sounded less convinced, recalling the county faced another problem with ES&S machines in 2019.
“Twice in four years we’ve had problems,” Heckman said. “I don’t think we can have a third problem and sustain your vendor status.”
Goffredo accused ES&S of breaching its contract and called for those responsible to be fired.
Three people who spoke before council’s questioning agreed the board should act beyond what steps the executive takes to smooth things over before next year’s presidential primary.
“How can we begin to trust the election process?” asked Beverely Hernandez, adding people she hears from believe the voting is rigged, and that the problem made national news.
“We’re a laughingstock of the nation,” she said.
Northampton County Republican Chair Glenn Geissinger urged council to consider other options heading into the crucial 2024 presidential election.
“We cannot have the same failure,” said Geissinger. “I beseech you to utilize your authority to look at a new voting system, to ensure these kinds of errors do not occur again.”
Geissinger said Friday the party will challenge Tuesday’s scheduled certification of votes and ask that the county’s five-member election commission reject the validation process. He said the Republicans have filed several open-records requests in county court to ensure that “information and evidence” is preserved. Thus far, he said, more than 100 voters have filed complaints about their voting problems on Nov. 7.
Besides the certification of the votes, which is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday in the county government center, the county will conduct an audit on Friday, Nov. 24 and then ship results by Nov. 27 to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
McClure, who is Democrat, stressed the voting results, as in previous elections in recent years, are “fair, legal and accurate.” But he and Carbullido also expressed regret for what happened, while stopping short of saying who specifically caused the error.
“I would like to personally apologize to any voter who suffered any inconvenience, or worse, on Election Day,” McClure said. He also said his investigation into what happened was continuing.
While council, which was holding its first meeting since the election, votes on major contracts, the hiring and operation of the election system falls to the administration under McClure.
Morning 첥Ƶ reporter Anthony Salamone can be reached at asalamone@mcall.com.
