Northampton County’s five-person elections commission got to work 3:30 p.m. Jan. 23. The meeting lasted two-and-a-half hours.

The only returning member of the commission is Maudenia Hornick. Newcomer Frank L. DeVito joins Hornick to complete the Republican contingent of the commission.

The Democrats - all of them newcomers - consist of Dr. Alan Brau, Daniel Lopresti and Gail W. Preuninger.

Providing legal advice to the board is Rick Santee.

The board unanimously appointed Hornick as chair. Brau was unanimously elected vice chair.

The board was prepared and ready to get down to business.

Preuninger told the ExpressVote XL manufacturer she had suggestions on improvements the company could make to a public video to have it be 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.

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, members decided to put off the decision so they could do their own research.

“I would like more time,” Hornick said.

She said she voted for the ExpressVote XL and added, “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 is the same system used in Lehigh County for six years, according to Dertinger. It is also the cheapest of three bids received.

Dertinger acknowledged 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,” Dertinger warned.

Preuninger is extremely concerned about voter outreach. Outreach and electronic pollbooks were expected to be topics at a Jan. 30 meeting. 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 ExpressVote XL, but voters should have the option of voting by paper ballot at the polls as well. He was informed voters can already do this via a mail-in ballot or a provisional ballot at the polls.

DeVito grilled Dertinger on Amy Cozze’s selection as voting registrar and was told the county followed the administrative code.

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