By DOUGLAS GRAVES

Special to The Press

Former Lehigh County Commissioner Dean Browning used the public comment part of the Lehigh County commissioners’ agenda Jan. 26 to share results of what he described as an investigation of voting at the County Government Center’s drop box during the last election.

According to Browning, more ballots were collected from the drop box in the lobby of the Government Center than there were people who walked up to the drop box.

He said the Lehigh County Republican Committee reviewed the video tapes for all of the drop boxes in Lehigh County and counted the number of voters who used the drop box at the Lehigh County Government Center.

He claimed 1,587 ballots were placed in the ballot box, but his team counted 1,280 people actually walking up to the drop box.

“There were multiple people who dropped off multiple ballots,” said Browning, during an in-person appearance before county commissioners.

Browning referred to a spread sheet which he said had more details.

He said he had a screenshot or picture of a monitor showing a video with at least one individual holding “a handful of ballots.”

Browning said it is illegal for an individual to deposit ballots from another person unless the person voting has filled out and filed a “designated agent” form authorizing a second party to deposit another’s ballot.

“If everyone was following the law, the county should have had at least 307 certificates for just the activity at the Government Center for the period in question,” Browning said.

Instead, according to Browning, Lehigh County had only 35 designated agent forms on file for the total period of the election covering all polling places.

“There are two solutions,” Browning said.

One solution he suggested was to end the drop box policy which he said was adopted because of the COVID-19 emergency, which he described as now over with.

The other was to place election officials and poll workers at all drop boxes to ensure voters with more than one ballot had the requisite designated agent forms on file with the county.

“Doing nothing is not an option, if you want to start the process of restoring confidence in our election process,” Browning said.

Browning also commented in a later interview with The Press.

“The problem is that mail-in ballots allow a large portion of the election to take place outside the oversight of election officials,” Browning said. “Allowing drop boxes just makes it easier for the votes to be harvested.”

Commissioners, as is customary, did not respond to Browning’s comments at the meeting.