[ad_1]
Following an election process steeped in controversy and software bugs, Northampton County’s administrative director resigned Friday, a news release from County Executive Lamont G. McClure says.
The release from the county states Charles M. Dertinger, the county’s director of administrative director for the past six years, says, while the 2020, 2021 and 2022 elections were “nearly flawless” and Dertinger had been instrumental in other county accomplishments such as the foresnic center, under his leadership the “2019 and 2023 elections were failures.”
“It is with deep regret that I have accepted the resignation today of Charles M. Dertinger from the position of Director of Administration, County of Northampton,” McClure said.
Before his resignation, Dertinger attended a routine election audit recount process at 10 a.m. Friday in the county election office in Easton. Besides Dertinger, those present also included Northampton County Public Information Officer Brittney Waylen, Northampton County Republican Chair Glenn Geissinger, county election workers and members of the media.
Under Pennsylvania law, county boards of elections must do a statistical recount of a random sample of at least 2% of the ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever is fewer. To complete this, five precincts from each of the four county council districts are randomly selected.
County officials also on Friday completed a risk limiting audit, which was required by the state. A risk limiting audit examines a random sample of paper ballots, comparing the votes on paper to the totals reported by the vote-counting machines to ensure the reported outcome of the audited contest is correct.
While the county said the audits showed the correct vote numbers, issues persisted with the software provided to the county by Election Systems & Software, the voting machine company contracted by the county since 2019.
On Election Day, ballot printouts given to voters showed incorrect tallies in the retention race for two state Superior Court judges, Jack Panella and Victor P. Stabile.
The risk-limited audit seemingly was unaffected by software bugs because it focused only on the Superior Court races involving Jill Beck, Timika Lane, Maria Battista and Harry Smail. But the 2% statistical sample audit sheets displayed the same errors for the Panella and Stabile retention races that voters saw at the polls.
Chris Commini, elections registrar for Northampton County, said the audit reflected the correct numbers of votes, but the order and placement of Panella and Stabile’s names were switched on the printed-out audit sheet. This means that Panella’s name was displayed above the votes Stabile received and Stabile’s name was displayed above Panella’s votes.
The continued issue drew criticism from Geissinger, the county GOP chair.
“The bottom line is the audit trail report and the barcode report do not match. By definition, they do not match, and therefore the audit trail does not indicate what the voter’s intent was and therefore the audit itself cannot be properly conducted,” Geissinger said. “The audit must be auditable. That’s why it exists.”
Geissinger said, while he isn’t accusing anyone at the county level of malfeasance, the only way he expects the issues and doubts brought up during this election to be resolved is in court. He said the Northampton County Republican Party and its legal team are in talks with the Republican Party of Pennsylvania about future steps. The party will file an information request Monday, he said.
He added the ultimate goal is to get the county, or if possible the state, to drop ES&S as a vendor, and preferably revert back to a paper ballot system.
“The ramifications of this go beyond the Panella and Stabile retention races,” Geissinger said. “We are again in a position where the voters of Northampton County are not confident that their vote is being recorded properly. It undermines the process, it undermines their confidence.”
The malfunction Nov. 7 affected the more than 300 voting machines in the county and resulted in nearly 2,400 paper provisional and emergency ballots being cast. The county later determined the problem was limited to retention questions for the Panella and Stabile races. An investigation determined the digital ballot in the machine correctly recorded the votes.
The error and the handling of the fallout have led to fierce criticism from elected officials, poll workers and voters of county administration under County Executive Lamont McClure and ES&S of Omaha, Neb.
Despite the controversy and public outcry, the county certified its election results Tuesday. The Northampton County’s election board solicitor said state law mandates that they certify results unless there are legal petitions for recounts or other pending court decisions regarding the election.
[ad_2]
Source_link
