Northampton County’s five-person elections commission got to work Jan. 23 in Northampton County’s training room at 3:30 p.m., adjacent to county council chambers. The meeting lasted two and a half hours. It met there because it had a busy agenda and there was a conflicting council committee meeting at 4:30 p.m.

The only returning member of the commission is Maudenia Hornick, sister of County GOP Chair Lee Snover. Newcomer Frank L DeVito joins Hornick to complete the Republican contingent of this Commission. The Democrats - all of them newcomers - consist of Alan Brau, M.D., Daniel Lopresti, and Gail W Preuninger. Providing legal advice to this Board is Rick Santee.

Democrat-majority board unanimously appointed Republican Hornick as Chair. Brau, who was running a little late, was unanimously elected Vice Chair. “That’s what he gets for being late,” joked Hornick.

These board members also appeared to do more work and preparation than those they replaced. For example, Gail Prueninger told the XL manufacturer that she had suggestions on improvements the company could make to a video for the public to make it more informative. She also had suggestions for improvements to a separately produced county video, and told Administrator Charles Dertinger the home page of the County’s website should include a direct link to the Elections Office. She then provided both the manufacturer and the county with several pages of her suggestions, all of them single-spaced.

The board also refused to be rushed into making recommendations. Instead of rubber-stamping a recommendation that the County spend $230,000 to purchase electronic pollbooks, they decided to put off the decision for a week so they could do their own research. “I would like more time,” said Hornick. She said she voted for the XL and, “We got egg on our face.”

These electronic pollbooks, called epollbooks, are the product of Tenex, a Florida-based company in business for the past 20 years. It’s the same system used in Lehigh County for six years, according to Dertinger. It is also the cheapest of three bids received.

Dertinger acknowledged that he opposed epollbooks himself, but the county has no choice. Changes in the Elections Code have expanded the time to register to vote or seek mail-in or absentee ballots, and this makes it impossible to print paper pollbooks in time. “If we don’t have pollbooks by the primary, we can’t have an election,” warned Dertinger.

Prueninger is extremely concerned about voter outreach and this and electronic pollbooks will be a topic of a rare meeting Jan. 30.

Ordinarily, an elections commission meets just four times a year, but these board members want to meet more frequently.

Brau also had some ideas of his own. He said the geek in him loves the XL, but voters should have the option of voting by paper ballot at the polls as well. He was informed that voters can already do this via a mail-in ballot or a provisional ballot at the polls.

DeVito grilled Dertinger on Cozze’s selection as Voting Registrar, and was told the County followed the Administrative Code.

Attorney Santee and other elections officials also addressed significant changes in the Elections Code, which may increase manpower demands in the elections office.