During a July 29 public hearing to hear allegations brought forth by Enid Santiago, Democrat candidate for Legislative District 22, numerous witnesses were called to testify about alleged election fraud, voter suppression, improper training and other wrongdoings which allegedly occurred during the June 2 Primary Election.

The hearing at Lehigh County Government Center was originally scheduled July 6 but was postponed due to Santiago’s amended complaint, which prevented the county’s Department of Law from providing legal advice.

Retired judge Emil Giordano was retained to serve as solicitor, and Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong and board member Doris Glaessmann attended the hearing in person. Board member Jane Ervin participated virtually.

In his opening, Santiago’s attorney Steve Masters said, “What we’ll hear today … is to share the evidence of voter suppression and voter fraud that has occurred in this election.”

Masters said the election board had a duty to report instances of suspected Election Code violations to the district attorney, and it is “not optional, it’s not a discretionary part of your job. It’s mandatory.”

Santiago testified she witnessed election judge Everett “Erika” Bickford carrying out several election violations, including marking ballots without a voter present, handling voters’ cast ballots and having opponent State Rep. Peter Schweyer’s campaign pens inside the polling location.

Additionally, she spoke about a number of other violations she personally witnessed or was informed about by voters or her campaign volunteers.

These included the late opening of the Fearless Fire Company polling location, voters being turned away from polling locations and/or not being offered provisional ballots, and election workers unable to search for voters’ hyphenated names, among others.

Regarding Fearless Fire Company, Jose Rosado testified he notified Santiago of opening issues, saying he witnessed people entering the polling place but none leaving.

Rosado said around 7:40 a.m. a young man came out and he was visibly frustrated.

The man said the polling location was not prepared to handle voters and that workers were not adequately trained.

Rosado also said around 10-12 other voters - African American or Latinx - expressed similar frustrations.

“At that point I just realized they were potential voters who were leaving the voting place without having been able to vote,” he said.

Sharon Smith, judge of Elections at Fearless Fire Company, said there were training issues among her poll staff.

“None of us were on the email that was sent out on the 30th of May that had links to training videos,” she said.

Smith said she received the videos from a third-party the morning before Election Day.

“That gave me less than 24 hours to view all of the training materials, which put me at a great loss.”

Smith acknowledged the Fearless location opened approximately 40 minutes late, and several voters were left waiting in line but none were turned away.

Additionally, she was asked by Masters about election judge training regarding darkening, handling or altering ballots.

Smith said while there were instructions about reminding voters to correctly darken circles, there was “nothing about any poll workers helping.

Smith also said voters had to take ballots to the scanner themselves.

If a ballot was rejected due to jagged edges, voters would receive a new ballot and the original was invalidated and spoiled, then retained for the total ballot count, which was the proper procedure from what we understand.

Another major issue noted by witnesses were incorrect ballots.

Victor Martinez, CEO of La Mega radio station and president of Alianza PAC, said his radio station received several messages from voters at the LANTA Bus polling location who said Enid’s name wasn’t on the ballot.

Martinez said after contacting Santiago about the missing names, she went to the location and was told by a judge of elections they had received the incorrect ballots, and voters could write their candidate choice on the back of the ballot.

Brenda Fernandez, a clerk at the LANTA station, testified regarding the provisional ballots.

“We discovered that the voter office sent over the wrong ones.”

Fernandez said the ballots listed candidates for the 132nd District instead of the 22nd, and had neither Santiago nor Schweyer’s names were on them.

Fernandez said while the station eventually received the correct ballots, after being alerted to the error by a voter, three people cast their votes on the incorrect provisional ballot before the change was made.

This was out of nine total provisional ballots requested that day.

She also said for the one voter who noted the mistake, they were told to write her [Santiago] name on the back to record the vote.

Anthony Kyzer, judge of elections at the LANTA station, corroborated Fernandez’s testimony about the incorrect ballots.

“We did not notice the Democrat tickets were incorrect until the voter brought it up at roughly 5 p.m.,” he said.

Kyzer also said he did not recall being given a specific location on the incorrect ballot for voters to write in their candidate, but said since the front of the ballots were filled with candidates there was just room on the back to write a name for the votes to be reported.

Like Smith, Kyzer was also asked about instructions regarding filling in or altering ballots.

“It’s just generally understood once you hand it to the voter, it’s the voter’s.”

He corroborated Smith’s recollection of invalidating rejected ballots and issuing new ones to voters.

Regarding incorrect ballots with handwritten names, Benyo testified they were all counted.

He added his office went through the ballots with members from Santiago’s campaign.

Furthermore, additional testimonies highlighted voters who were directed to other locations, unable to be located by last name, or had their completed ballots taken by poll workers.

Cynthia Velez, another campaign volunteer, was at a Hamilton Street polling location.

She was concerned upon seeing “a lot of voters showed up and were not allowed to vote,” because their original polling location was closed.

“No one notified them their voting place was changed or they had to vote someplace else,” Velez said, noting at least a half-dozen Latin American voters came to vote and were turned away and told they could not vote there, and they didn’t know where to vote.

Benyo later testified that while numerous polling locations throughout Lehigh County were lost due to the pandemic, all location changes were properly advertised and presented in print and on the county website.

Patrick Palmer said he was getting vote counts for Santiago’s campaign and encountered several frustrated voters, including one man who was being turned away at Mack Boulevard.

“He didn’t really speak English. He went to a different polling location first and they turned him away over there, so he come over to the one on Mack Boulevard.”

Palmer said the man did not get the chance to vote and, upon showing poll workers his ID, they told him ‘you don’t live here, so you can’t vote here’ even though the man said he had always voted at that location.

Palmer said he asked workers to look up the man’s name - which was hyphenated - and said the man was eventually able to vote.

“But we don’t know how many people were turned away at that point just because of a situation like that.”

Additionally, Palmer noted at the Allen Street location, a female poll worker took voters’ ballots upon completion, including his.

“They took my ballot. I never put it in the actual machine,” he said. “After I filled it out, I got up and a woman took it from me, and then she went to put it in the machine.”

He added upon returning later that day, he saw the same woman collecting ballots from two other voters.

Speaking through a translator, Margarita Galarza said she cast an in-person vote at the Government Center and filled out her first ballot, but then said a woman - who Galarza identified as Bickford - took her completed ballot after it was rejected by the voting machine.

Galarza said she received a second ballot, which she successfully managed to submit but was unsure of what Bickford did with her original ballot.

Galarza’s nurse assistant, Elizabeth Arias, testified she saw her patient leave upset, telling me … “an older lady took her paper. They wouldn’t give it back.”

Lastly, Nadia Thalassinos, one of the campaign’s media volunteers, said she received a message about a woman whose mother was turned away from the Government Center.

She and Santiago picked up the voter and brought her back to the polling place.

She said the poll worker registering voters told the voter they couldn’t find her name; that she was not registered, even though Thalassinos said she checked the registration card and confirmed her eligibility.

The poll worker asked Thalassinos to look up the voter’s name.

“I just plugged in her name and there it was. It popped up,” she said.

Thalassinos also testified the woman told her she messed up her ballot, and Bickford had taken the voter’s first ballot and given her a second, which Bickford also took and then told the two they could leave.

“Miss Bickford did not put that in the scanner. I actually don’t know what she did with the spoiled ballot at this point. She just gave another ballot … and Miss Bickford took the filled ballot and said we could go,” Thalassinos said.

After Santiago’s witnesses finished, Giordano said the county elected not to call any witnesses and, after a closing statement from Masters, adjourned the hearing for an executive session.