At its Nov. 23 meeting, Northampton County’s Elections Commission voted 4-1 to certify the Nov. 3 Presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden was awarded a 1,233-vote victory in a county that Trump won four years ago and in which he personally campaigned.

NorCo’s Elections Commission consists of Republicans Maudenia Hornick and Frank L DeVito, as well as Democrats Dr. Alan Brau, Daniel Lopresti and Gail W Preuninger. Maude Hornick, chair of the commission, is the sole member who refused to certify. She is the sister of county GOP boss Gloria Lee Snover.

This presidential election had a record 75.68 percent turnout, despite being conducted in the middle of a pandemic. Turnout among Democrats was 75 percent, while Republican turnout was 80.4 percent.

GOP Chair Snover and Elections Chair Hornick both used the word “chaotic” to describe the election. In addition, one of their poll watchers claimed she had been “intimidated” by pollworkers at a precinct in South Bethlehem. She never called the elections office.

Snover listed a litany of complaints from Republicans unable to vote by mail and even said several were unable to vote because someone had already done so, using their name. She carried these complaints to a local talk radio show and even spoke of them at a hearing conducted by a group of Pa. state senators in Gettysburg.

Seated next to Snover was her husband, Attorney Michael Snover. He had previously sued (and lost) when elections officials released the names and addresses of 48 voters whose ballots had been rejected for technical defects. Interestingly, he filed no lawsuit to stop certification based on any of the allegations made by his wife or Hornick before the Elections Commission, on talk radio or at the hearing in Gettysburg.

In stark contrast to claims made by the Snovers and Hornick, several elections judges, such as Norm Daniel, complimented Registrar Amy Cozze for the advance training provided and for running a smooth election in the middle of a pandemic, despite numerous changes in election law.

Snover also complained about the Express Vote XL voting machines, a system she herself once embraced. She ticked off a list of breakdowns at numerous precincts, adding that some were down the entire day. When asked about this complaint, Cozze noted she had technicians with extra machines on the road to replace any machine that malfunctioned. But she had no breakdowns.

“It’s just not true,” Cozze said of Snover’s complaint.

Before certifying the results, the elections commission also conducted three days of hearings based on 480 challenges Snover made to Democratic ballots based on signatures, dates and addresses. Most challenges were rejected as voter after voter personally appeared.

Flamboyant attorney Gary Asteak, wearing his trademark cowboy boots, represented Democrats. He made clear that his party challenged no ballots, even GOP ballots that appeared to be defective.

“We did not raise spurious arguments like the Republicans did,” he noted. “We wanted every vote to count.”

Asteak was at times incensed at challenges brought against persons of color or with Spanish-sounding names, while Republican precincts went untouched.

“We’d probably have to rent Cottingham Stadium to hear all the people you want to get rid of,” he responded when Snover complained about inactive voters who are still registered and thus were able to vote.

In NorCo, only 329 of 73,815 mail-in ballots (MIBs) were rejected because of failure to insert them inside a secrecy envelope. In Lehigh County, about 1,200 of 77,500 MIBs were rejected for that reason.

Cozze’s report was much briefer than the polemics delivered by the Snovers.

“It was a very long and arduous year,” she said. “I’m glad it’s over. That concludes my report.”