Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
GOP CALLS FOR AUDIT OF MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
Full results in Chester County still not clear
“On Nov. 2, roughly 143,000 residents of Chester County voted in our municipal election. One week later, after the discovery of numerous problems with the vote tabulation, we still await the final results.” — GOP Chairman Dr. Gordon Eck
WEST CHESTER » Chester County Republicans are calling for the county to conduct a full forensic audit of the results of the 2021 Municipal Elections, results that have not yet been forthcoming from the county’s Office of Voter Services because of a reported variety of issues involving mail-in ballots.
In a letter dated Tuesday, county GOP Chairman Dr. Gordon Eck told the commissioners that “a large segment of our community has lost trust in our election process,” and that a review of election procedures and counts needed to be conducted to ensure that the system used in receiving and counting ballots was transparent and free from problems in the future.
Eck accused the commissioners of a failure to “reconcile the votes as required by law,” and said that an unspecified “recurrence of significant irregularities” had coupled with undefined “problems relatedto last year’s election” to force the party’s hand to demand the audit.
“On Nov. 2, roughly 143,000 residents of Chester County voted in our municipal election,” Eck wrote in the letter to the commissioners — Democrats Marian Moskowitz and Josh Maxwell and Republican Michelle Kichline. “One week later, after the discovery of numerous problems with the vote tabulation, we still await the final results.”
As of Tuesday, the county had reported the unofficial results of all of the 103,128 ballots that had been cast by in-person voters at the county’s 230 polling places, and 39,118 of those ballots that had been cast by mail or at dropoff boxes across the county. How
“Fortunately, there is a clear legal framework within the election code which has for decades maintained this election integrity in Chester County.” — Chester County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Charlotte Valyo
ever, still outstanding is any count of 1,663 mail-in ballots that were not processed as of 1 a.m. on Thursday, and about 250 others discovered after the counting had started.
The inclusion of the mailin ballots is key to the apparent victory by Democratic candidates in a number of county, school district, and local races. Before the mail-in ballots were processed late Tuesday into Wednesday, GOP candidates had comfortable leads; by Wednesday morning, those leads had evaporated and were transformed into apparent Democratic wins by Thursday for county Row Offices and Common Pleas judges, as well as local races for downballot offices.
But the unreported mailin ballots — which include spoiled ballots, invalidly cast ballots, and a number of uncounted votes that fell victim to a software issue — could play a significant role in the outcome of any number of races, including a contest between two women to see who will be the next Magisterial District Judge in Uwchlan. The Democratic candidate there, Paige Simmons, now leads Republican Maria McDowell by only nine votes.
The commissioners did not immediately respond to Eck’s demand.
In his letter, Eck gave no indication when he believed the forensic audit might be conducted, what it would entail, who would conduct it, or who would pay for it. He did not say whether it should be done before results are certified by the county Board of Elections, or whether it would delay swearing in officials at the variety of positions on the ballot — some of whom may take office next month.
No forensic audit — that is, one conducted with an eye to whether laws have been broken — has ever been conducted in the county.
“The purpose of the audit is not to overturn the election,” said Eck in his letter. “Rather, the goal is to ensure our voting machines worked properly, that applicable state and federal laws and regulations were followed, that the voter registration lists were accurate and current and only allowed eligible individuals to vote, that all eligible voters were able to vote, that their vote was correctly counted, and that their votes were not inappropriately voided.
Although Eck had earlier told the party’s supporters “that every option is on the table” regarding oversight of the ballot count, his demand for an audit was a dramatic step that he seemed to be loathed to take in earlier messages.
“We are working with the county and the Democrat solicitor to resolve calculation issues and to ensure that every legal vote is counted and only counted once,” he said in a message on the party’s Facebook page on Sunday. “GOP counsel and the acting Republican solicitor met with all parties on Friday. We agreed to allow Voter Services to complete their reconciliations over the weekend.”
Reaction from the head of the county Democratic Party came Tuesday morning after Eck’s letter about the audit had been released to the media.
“I am not surprised,” said Chester County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Charlotte Valyo when told of his demand. “I don’t see a need for one. The issues (with mail-in ballots) were addressed immediately, and both sides agreed on the process for continuing. I don’t see a need.”
In an email sent after a request for comment, Valyo disputed the legality of an audit as Eck called for.
“Fortunately, there is a clear legal framework within the election code which has for decades maintained this election integrity in Chester County,” she claimed. “Voter Services is following the law and maintaining transparency by the inclusion of solicitors of the Democratic and Republican parties throughout the process. The presence of observers from both parties has enhanced this transparency. This process is intensive and timeconsuming and will require the patience and participation of all parties involved.
In an earlier statement, Valyo explained what she said had occurred and led to a delay in the reported results.
“During the work of reconciling the number of ballots counted with the number received, a discrepancy was identified,” the Democrat stated. “To immediately address the discovery, ballot counting was suspended on Friday to give Voter Services a chance to perform a reconciliation of the number of ballots received in the many different categories with the number of ballots counted.
“Problems detected were reported openly to both parties and both parties agreed to the reconciliation process and to the fact that there would be no observers over the weekend during the reconciliation process which is intensive and tedious,” Valyo said. “The Democratic and Republican Solicitors will be involved in discussing the process for ballot counting. Both parties will have observers in the room in addition to the solicitors.”
One observer who viewed the counting process on Friday and Monday was state Rep. Danielle Friel-Otten, D-155th, of Uwchlan, who had campaigned for several Democratic candidates in a tight school board race in the Downingtown Area
School District. She said she was “not shocked” at Eck’s demand.
“I think they’ve been teeing up for that all weekend,” Friel-Otten said in an interview. “It’s a standard part of the GOP playbook in Pennsylvania and nationally.”
“But I was in the room, and I observed no objections on the part of the Republicans to the process of moving forward,” she said. “I hope they are able to come to some sort of arrangement where we can move forward to make sure of the efficacy of the system. Any candidate who wants has a system in place to contest their results — a recount.
“Things happen in an election and things have been happening in elections for years,” she said. “It’s all about how you resolve them.”
Republican demands for “full forensic audits” have been made to the county commissioners over the past several weeks, citing unfounded and debunked claims of discrepancies and problems with the 2020 Presidential Election, won in the county by President Joe Biden.
Those requests followed the effort in Maricopa County, Ariz., to review the ballots cast in that election, an effort widely decried by both Democrats and Republicans that eventually showed Biden winning the county by an even wider margin than previously thought.
Earlier this year, Republican state lawmakers in Harrisburg fought over the initiation of an audit of the 2020 election, but that effort seems to have stalled over the past several weeks, and Friel-Otten said she had no idea where it stood at this point.