Northampton County regrets to report that we will not be able to provide results of the April 28 Primary on election night. The failure of the Election Commission to approve the purchase of Electronic Poll Books (ePoll Books) at its Jan. 30 meeting means that unofficial results will not be available until sometime in May. Under the Home Rule Charter, these commissioners were hand-picked by the Democratic and Republican Party Chairs-Matt Munsey and Gloria “Lee” Snover.

Major changes were made to the Election Code in October 2019. Act 77 is an historic reform which makes voting more convenient by extending time for citizens to register and to send in mail-in and absentee ballots. However, that convenience comes with an accelerated timeline. Previously, voter registration ended 30 days before an election, now it’s 15. Registrations received at county offices on April 15 won’t be uploaded to the state system for several days. Providing that we can find a printer willing to take the job (NTS, the printer we’ve used for years, is pulling out of Pennsylvania), all materials will have to be delivered to the print shop three to four weeks in advance. Any printed poll books produced for the election will be inaccurate, so an additional list of late filers will have to be produced.

Verifying names on two separate lists will substantially slow down the lines at the polls, especially since turnout this year is expected to be heavy. Results will be delayed for weeks because, after the polls close, election’s staff will have to scan 350 books containing over 209,000 names into the state’s SURE system to confirm that no one voted twice – once at the polls and once via a mail-in ballot. Until the scanning is completed, none of the mail-in ballots can be opened. The county expects to receive a minimum of 15,000 votes by mail-enough to change the results tabulated on the voting machines.

In past elections, scanning the poll books took a minimum of two to three weeks. With high turnout and more people voting by mail, this time may be doubled.

Northampton County did not want to purchase ePoll Books and has resisted requests to do so for years. The ePoll Books introduce another level of technology for our staff and volunteers to master. They are also expensive. The system under consideration will cost $262,150 for the machines themselves as well as another $43,750 a year for maintenance. However, they can be updated quickly through the state’s SURE system, producing accurate voter rolls in time for the election. They can also redirect someone who is at the wrong polling place to the right one, and indicate which voters have filed an application to vote by mail.

Forcing us to use a paper system will result in long lines and confusion at the polls, will delay election results for weeks, and will likely cause Northampton County to miss the deadline to file our results with the state. To be clear, this will be the fault of the commissioners.

All of these facts have been presented to the Election Commission. Northampton County has many authorities, boards and commissions operated by volunteers who willingly donate their time and work with the county in a responsible manner because they want residents to benefit from government services. Unfortunately, on Thursday night, the Election Commission made it very clear that they 1) are not interested in making sure candidates and Northampton County residents can see results the night of the election, 2) are not concerned about the stress they are putting on county staff, 3) are not troubled by the difficulties poll workers will have trying to check long lines of people in on multiple lists and 4) don’t care if Northampton County misses its filing deadline with the state.

Chair Maudeania Hornik instructed the administration to “hire an army” and “do the printing in-house.” Governments have obligations to taxpayers and must follow budgets. The labor and overtime needed to “hire an army of workers” would require us to take money from other programs. We can’t magically conjure a printing system to produce poll books and we’d have to provide space for an army to work. Counting votes in a hallway will bring justified complaints about security issues.

Northampton County bears all of the responsibility for making sure that our election produces fair, accurate and legal results. The purpose of the Election Commission is to assist the county in that endeavor, not to deny them the tools required to complete the job. Alan Brau, Frank DeVito, Maudeania Hornik and Daniel Lospresti all voted against the purchase of a resource Northampton County must have to fulfill the requirements of Act 77. Gail Preuninger voted for the purchase.

If you want a floor cleaned properly, don’t refuse to give the janitor a mop.

For those unhappy with not knowing which candidates won in Northampton County the night of the election, please send an email at to elections@northamptoncounty.org We’ll be sure each and every member of the Election Commission receives a copy.