Northampton County has selected Amy Cozze as its new register of elections. This announcement was made at the Jan. 23 meeting of the elections commission. She was one of seven internal applicants, and was chosen by a three-person board consisting of Administrator Charles Dertinger and representatives from the elections office and human relations. There were external applicants as well, but the county’s Administrative Code requires that priority be given to county employees. Acting Registrar Amy Hess declined the job, saying she wanted to return to her role as Deputy.

Cozze is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where she majored in psychology and minored in business administration. Since 2018, she has worked in Northampton County’s Department of Administration, and threw herself into elections. She was instrumental in the selection of the controversial ExpressVote voting system. She organized a voter outreach program in which the new system was demonstrated at over 20 locations. Only Philadelphia could match this effort to inform the public. When council wanted to see how this system worked in Delaware, she spent the entire day at the Diamond State, visiting precincts and speaking to voters. When problems arose in Northampton County’s first use of this system, Cozze is one of a handful of county workers who worked 35 hours straight to make sure the votes were counted properly.

In 2018, Cozze mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the state house against incumbent Joe Emrick. She made clear, however, that she will be completely nonpartisan in her new role. Her previous role as a candidate should give her some insight into the many problems faced by candidates for public office.

In the private sector, Cozze worked at Deerfoot Auto Parts, a successful family-owned auto recycling and service business located in Wind Gap. She also started and managed her own cake bakery in Nazareth.

It was widely assumed that Amy Hess, Acting Registrar and one of Northampton County’s hardest workers, would take this job. But after November’s election, in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong, Hess made it clear she wanted to return to her role as deputy. No amount of persuasion could change her mind. In fact, Hess was one of Cozze’s biggest supporters.

Even in the best of times, a presidential election is always a challenge for the elections office. On top of that, she will be responsible for the controversial XL voting system and, if she has her way, electronic poll books to make it easier to check in voters. She will also be tasked with implementing recent changes in the Election Code that will drown her office with mail-in ballots.

Her salary will be $67,594 per year.