DV Journal

Montgomery County officials have taken issue with a video that the county Republican Party obtained through a right-to-know request and released to the news media.

The video shows a woman feeding several ballots into an Upper Dublin ballot box used in last November’s election. Ballot boxes and no excuse mail-in ballots permitted under Act 77 have been an issue in the last three elections, with many voters questioning the integrity of the new system.

Even though individuals are required to put their own ballots into ballot boxes, the county said in a letter to GOP Chair Liz Preate Havey that the woman shown was permitted to submit those ballots because she had “a completed Designated Agent Form in accordance with Pennsylvania law.”

“Each form properly identified the individual voter and designated the individual in the video as the person permitted to act as an agent on the voter’s behalf,” the letter said. “The county maintains each of these Designated Agent forms in its possession. This individual did nothing wrong. In fact, the video shows this voter taking the proper steps to enfranchise residents of a local rehabilitation and long-term care facility so that their votes were legally cast.

“It is irresponsible that MCRC, rather than make a reasonable attempt to get the facts, released this video to a third party and on MCRC social media falsely accusing the individual involved with ‘illegal ballot harvesting,’ when in fact, the individual correctly followed the rules for returning ballots. Mail-in ballots may be returned to the Board of Elections by a designated agent acting on behalf of a voter who, due to a disability, is not able to do so on their own.

“Returning ballots to a secure ballot drop box is one of several ways to return ballots to the Board of Elections. Many voters of both parties choose to deliver their ballot to a secure drop box for the peace of mind they provide. Each drop box has the rules clearly posted, is under 24-hour video surveillance, and has every ballot collected daily by a sheriff’s deputy and delivered directly to Voter Services,” according to the letter, which a county spokesperson released to Delaware Valley Journal.

Not surprisingly, the Republicans disagreed with the county officials’ explanation.

In a press release, GOP officials said, “The Pennsylvania Department of State designated agent form clearly states, ‘the person you designate as your agent is only allowed to serve as a designated agent for one voter, unless the additional voter(s) live in the same household as you (the voter named in this form).’”

They called the county’s response “deeply troubling.”

“The county is interpreting a large senior living facility as one household,” the Republicans said. “The Pennsylvania Department of State Voting Fact Sheet for Long Term Care Facilities specifically states a  ‘household’ for the purpose of designating an agent does not include a long-term care facility.”

Also, “the county fails to note whether or not the woman who did the ballot harvesting lives in the ‘same household as all the people for whom she dropped the ballots as required by Pennsylvania law. That is because she does not live in a senior living facility according to her voter registration. She has been identified by many as a long-time leader in the Democrat Party.”

And the Republicans said, “The county never addressed designated agents using drop boxes for any reason in its published instructions or in any communication with the Republican Party or its candidates.”

“The Democrat-controlled county has chosen to protect one of its own party leaders in direct violation of Pennsylvania law,” the Republicans added. “This kind of blatant disregard for even the simplest election security rules is unacceptable and contributes to the deep distrust many have in our system.”

In addition, the “MCRC is requesting the Montgomery County Election Board provide all the evidence that the county reviewed regarding the woman who dropped the multiple ballots. And we ask that it also provide the information to the district attorney and, if appropriate, the attorney general.

“We would also like to know the county’s conclusions and actions to be taken about each of the other 106 people who dropped more than one ballot at the Upper Dublin drop box. If the county does not provide this information, MCRC is prepared to submit a Right to Know Request for this information.”

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The Montgomery County and Bucks County boards of elections have filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of State secretary seeking to clarify the rules for mail-in and absentee ballots.

At issue is whether ballots where voters do not include a date with their signature as instructed can still be counted.

“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that a county board of elections must have a compelling reason for refusing to canvass a ballot due to minor irregularities,” the suit said. And it added, “The legislature has failed to provide any clarification for voters or county boards of election regarding the voter’s declaration.”

Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) said the legislature is filing a brief to intervene in the case, which is pending in Commonwealth Court. According to the docket, state lawyers asked for more time to respond to the suit, which was filed Oct. 1.

Grove, who chairs the House Government Committee, said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued rulings in the 2020 election to permit the counting of mail-in ballots in an Allegheny County race that were not properly signed and dated.

The state Supreme Court ruled on Nov. 23, 2020 against a challenge brought by Nicole Ziccarelli, who lost a close state Senate election, regarding the validity of 2,349 mail-in ballots that were signed but not dated. A four-justice majority held that not dating the ballots “did not warrant the disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvania voters.”

“Uniformity, that’s our big issue with the elections,” Grove said. “You’re seeing non-uniform policies.”

Grove said the changes requested in the lawsuit filed by Bucks and Montco officials had been part of previous legislation vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf. In an op-ed in “The Federalist,” Grove accused the county officials of working to advance the goals of the Democratic Party through the courts, rather than working with legislators to fix the state’s election laws.

However, new election laws were introduced in the legislature to make the voting process smoother.

“As the Voting Rights Protection Act moves through the legislative process, the committee today took steps to ensure elections across the commonwealth’s 67 counties are uniform and that all voters are treated equally,” Grove said, on his website. “We also took a major step toward holding non-elected public servants accountable in terms of ensuring ballot questions actually up on ballots.”

Grove cited these bills:  Senate Bill 738 by Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) would require the Department of State to post a tracker on its website for the public to monitor every step and action item the department is taking to ensure proper compliance to carry out a proposed constitutional amendment.

And House Bill 1482 by Rep. Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) would require the Commonwealth and each county in this Commonwealth to implement a post-election audit using an approved auditing method.

In addition, House Bill 2044 by Rep. Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland) would end private funding for public elections in the commonwealth.  More than $20 million was given by a nonprofit related to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg went to 21 Pennsylvania counties that were trending Democratic or had a majority of Democratic voters in 2020.

While there were widely reported issues with the 2020 election, there have also been problems with the Nov. 2 2021 election, particularly with mail-in ballots in Montgomery, Chester and Delaware counties.

In Indiana County, Grove said, voters were given the wrong instructions for mail-in ballots, then the corrected instructions issued were also incorrect.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” he said.

He is very concerned about the 2022 election cycle, since the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat will be contested and large numbers of voters will likely cast ballots. The Senate seat, now held by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who is not running again, could decide which party controls of the Senate and is widely thought to be a seat that might flip to the Democrats.

“Next year in Pennsylvania there will be a nationalized election for the outcome of Congress,” said Grove.  “We want to at least make sure Frances Wolf does not become confused in the next election.” Grove was referring to a widely reported error by the first lady, who dropped off her husband’s mail-in ballot, in violation of election laws.

A spokesperson for Wolf called that incident “an honest mistake.”

Last month, Montgomery County election officials learned that approximately 16,000 mail-in ballots for Tuesday’s election were printed incorrectly. On Nov. 3, the Montgomery County Board of Elections released an update on the 2021 General Election with final results not expected until the weekend.

The update shows all ballots cast in-person have been recorded, but mail-in and provisional ballots are still being processed. While final results are expected to be delayed, the county will continue to update its online results dashboard on a regular basis in the following days as eligible ballots are counted and validated, officials said.

The county is sequestering the returned ballots related to the previously announced misprint of mail-in ballots by its printer, officials said. Affected ballots are subject to a separate verification process that was approved by the Board of Elections and shared with both political parties as well as the Pennsylvania Department of State.

The county has also encountered a higher than usual number of ballots that could be read by ballot scanners. Officials are following an established process in a bipartisan fashion to recreate the impacted ballots to make sure every eligible vote is validated and counted. The process occurs during every election as there are various reasons ballots are sometimes unable to be scanned.

Officials estimate approximately 23,000 ballots are affected by the two issues. Results will continue to be updated in real-time on the results dashboard as ballots are counted and validated.

“No matter what side of the aisle, I think we can all agree that waiting nearly a week for election results is unacceptable. We can do better,” said Clarice Schillinger, executive director of Back to School PA, a group that supported school board candidates who want to keep students in the classrooms.

Joe Gale, the sole Republican Montgomery County Commissioner, sounded off on the issue and about his own party yesterday via Instagram.

“Yet another election mess has been caused by Act 77, the unconstitutional Pennsylvania law that created 50 days of no-excuse mail-in voting,” said Gale, a GOP Pennsylvania gubernatorial hopeful. “If you or someone you know lost an election because of mail-in voting or the results still remain unknown because of mail-in voting, be sure to blame Doug ‘Mail-In’ Mastriano and every other Republican state senator who voted for Act 77.”

Ken Lawrence, vice chairman of the county commissioners told The Reporter that amid the ongoing controversy he was excited about the turnout for Tuesday’s election.

“I think there was a lot of interest in this election, particularly the school board races, our local elections,” Lawrence said. “So I think it’s great to see people were coming out to vote in person or to vote by mail.”

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A red wave has seemingly washed over Pennsylvania, although ballots were still being counted two days after Election Day 2021.

In Bucks County – which drew a 40 percent voter turnout, higher than Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties – GOP members will now head the row offices of sheriff, district attorney, recorder of deeds, prothonotary, and county controller. Patricia Popkik, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Bucks County, isn’t surprised by the GOP’s dominance.

“So many people are awakened, stirred up, and enthused,” Popkik says, adding that her organization trained 150 new poll workers this election. “They’re unhappy with what’s going on in Washington. Voters have made it clear that they want changes.”

Republicans also swept statewide judicial elections, fueling the party’s hope for 2022, in which voters will decide a new governor and a new U.S. senator. After all, the party of the president usually loses seats in Congress in midterm elections, and a Republican has replaced an outgoing Democratic governor in Pennsylvania for the past 60 years.

“The gubernatorial race is very much in play and something Republicans can take as long as Democrat leadership keeps making these ridiculous rules and building these enormous debts,” Popkik says.

In nearby Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans continued to make gains. Glenn Youngkin flipped the governor’s office in Virginia, defeating former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe, and Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy eked out a victory over GOP challenger Jack Cittarelli in a surprisingly close race. Education, specifically a parent’s say in what their child is taught, was a main issue in the Virginia race. Meanwhile, the New Jersey race focused on issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Murphy’s lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine requirements for teachers.

Considering that President Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points and New Jersey by 16 points in 2020, those races indicate many voters aren’t satisfied with his first year in office.

“It’s a big win for the rule of law and family values in Pennsylvania, nearby Virginia and beyond, as residents voted for judicial restraint and repudiation of the dangerous and divisive Biden/Harris agenda,” says Gordon Eck, chairman of the Republican Committee of Chester County. “Locally, while the votes are still being counted, our gains appear to be more modest, yet significant at the municipal and school board level in supporting accountability in government and ensuring parents are given their rightful place in their children’s education and health.”

As of 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 3, Montgomery County recorded 35.2 percent voter turnout. Considering the effort the county’s Democratic Party put forth in encouraging residents to participate, from mailing campaigns to knocking on doors, chairman Joe Foster was disappointed by the low turnout.

“We went the extra yard to grind out the vote, but these races never generate the kind of expense that more high-profile races do, and with that expense comes more coverage,” Foster says. “The politics of the country today are so hard, unforgiving and accusatory that even when you make the extra expense and knock on more doors, maybe people are just tired of politics. Maybe there’s voter fatigue out there. I wonder if you can only rev up the base so many times.”

In contrast to the rest of the region, Democrats performed well in Delaware County thanks to hundreds of local candidates and grassroots activists knocking on doors, making phone calls, sending text messages and dropping literature on doorsteps to communicate the importance of this election to voters.

The party is celebrating wins for Delaware County Council candidates Kevin Madden and Richard Womack, Sheriff Jerry Sanders, Controller Joanne Phillips, and Rachel Ezzell Berry for register of wills.

“We have prevailed at the ballot box despite the national trend of voter dissatisfaction,” says Delaware County Democratic Chair Colleen Guiney. “In 2017, Democrats established a strong foothold in county government. In 2019, they won control. But this year, voters have made it clear that Democratic representation is here to stay.”

However, two Republican county chairpersons claim controversy with the election, particularly due to mail-in ballots (primarily used by Democrat voters).

On Wednesday, the Montgomery County Election Results Dashboard indicated 65,968 mail-in ballots had been received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. However, the correct number was approximately 71,000, according to Montgomery County Republican Chair Liz Havey. Additionally, she said the party learned approximately 9,000 of the 20,000 outstanding mail-in ballots were unable to be read by the scanners due to a printing error. As a result, those ballots have to be manually recreated by teams of Republican and Democrat volunteers.

This process is expected to continue through Saturday, Havey says, stressing that official results won’t be ready until the process is complete.

“What’s clear is the mail-in ballot process has led to great confusion and distrust in the system,” she says. “The Montgomery County Election Board and the Department of State must do better and be held accountable.”

Thomas McGarrigle, chair of the Delaware County Republican Party, has gone one step further.  He’s calling on Delaware County to do a voluntary recount of the entire election.

“I’m not a lawyer and don’t know the many intricacies of election law, but I do know that all of the errors the county has admitted that its third-party vendor has caused have imperiled the integrity of the election,” McGarrigle says.

On Nov. 30, there was an emergency hearing to address why more than 600 ballots were mailed to the wrong residents in Delco by ElectionIQ, a third-party vendor hired by the county.

“Let candidates be able to see if they won or lost without having to rely on technology that has repeatedly failed the county and all voters in this election cycle,” McGarrigle says.

“I am calling on the Democratic Party to stand with us as we request the Democrat-controlled government to voluntarily recount these ballots. This is a perfect opportunity to restore trust in government and restore trust and integrity to the electoral process.”

Bucks County Democratic Party Chair John Cordisco and Chester County Democratic Party Chair Charlotte Valyo didn’t return requests for comment.

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A Havertown caller into my radio show said it best discussing the disconnect between working class Philadelphians and their suburban, upper-middle class expatriate peers.

“There’s no greater tyrant than the white, suburban soccer mom. They move out of the cities, and as long as they’ve got bike paths, Whole Foods, and SUVs — everyone else can burn in Hell.”

As a suburban Chester county resident, I had a hard time disputing his blunt point.

How else can you explain the complacency among many in Pennsylvania today? A governor who has the economy in a headlock, limiting the movements and activities of every citizen young and old.

He shows no sign of restoring normalcy or constitutional liberties because, you see, “it’s too risky.” He’s moved the objective from flattening the curve and keeping our hospitals from being overwhelmed to “eradicating the virus” or waiting for a vaccine.

Those goals cannot be achieved. There can be no eradication of a virus. It will mutate as the flu does every season, or it will fizzle out as SARS did years ago. But Gov. Wolf can’t control that outcome. A vaccine might never be developed. They haven’t found one for HIV, for example.

Still, my suburban neighbors seem largely unmoved. Why? Because they don’t feel the pain or the hurt of a lockdown. Oh, sure, maybe they’re scared of getting sick, or maybe they’re afraid of their elderly loved ones getting sick. I worry about that, too.

But that’s a well-off, suburban person’s worry because they have nothing else to worry about.

So many of these people have jobs already based out of their homes. Six-figure incomes tied to some large corporate entity that still operating as they always have. One parent brings home the handsome direct deposit while the stay-at-home parent posts on social media about every day being a holiday now that the “kiddos” are home full time.

Their biggest challenge is making sure everyone else is doing their part in the Starbucks drive through by wearing masks and thoroughly cleaning the cart handles while they scout home décor at Target.

It is a blissful ignorance with no concern of what life is like for the waiter or waitress, the bartender or the busboy, the small retail owner, the dairy farmer or even the middle class guy whose company didn’t let him go but severely cut his hours and wages.

These are working-class people who aren’t “poor” per se, but they’re broken hearted.

They’re losing their dignity, their security and their independence as they wait on the phone for the unemployment office to process their weekly handout. Or worse, there’s not even a handout. Just belt tightening and praying they can hang on.

There’s a big divide in our city suburbs. It’s not just about haves and have-nots or the employed versus the unemployed.

It’s about a culture of working class versus working comfortable. A proud south-Philly-turned-suburban friend who’s been in politics all his life spoke of the disconnected suburbanite this way.

The suburbs used to pull us together — a mix of urban and rural. You either hunted or knew someone who did. You either grew up in a Philly neighborhood or you knew someone who did. A short drive and you were in the countryside or downtown.

But now they’ve become their own enclave, seeing themselves as superior to the rural communities and having a mix of benign neglect or liberal guilt for the poor in the city. They are the people who allow politicians like Wolf to tear us apart.

These detached, graduate school, educated elites who have a disdain for the very society and culture that allowed them to succeed and thrive in the first place. They used to be the glue that joined communities together. Now they are the aloof.

They’re not political. They just don’t care. They don’t have to. They’re the perfect citizens for a tyrant who wants to maintain full control.

By the time it upsets them, it’ll be far too late.