BALLOT BATTLE
GOP cries foul after new Dem sheriff issues warning to workers about polling place actions
Delaware County Councilman Michael Culp said he’d like to see an investigation regarding a memo sent by Sheriff Jerry L. Sanders Jr. to his employees about the upcoming election — but Culp’s Democratic colleagues said it’s the county’s Board of Elections that needs to evaluate the election process.
At Wednesday’s Delaware County Council meeting, Culp, a Republican, brought up his concern about a memo dated May 2 and issued to “All Sheriff’s Office Personnel” from the sheriff, a Democrat, that stated: “Sheriff’s Office employees shall not work any polling place during the 2018 General Primary Election Day on Tuesday, May 15, 2018. Anyone who does so without authorization will be dismissed of their duties.” It was signed, “J.S.” “In my opinion,” Culp said, “this conduct by an elected official is reckless and violates federal civil rights that could expose the county to a lawsuit.”
Councilman Kevin Madden, a Democrat, said, “I’m all for things being investigated and one of them should be issues of reported violations of election law and that has been brought up (to) the Board of Elections ... so that’s what drove the memo.”
Madden was referring to a letter sent to the county Board of Elections by Delaware County Democratic Committee Solicitor J. Manly Parks listing 10 incidents of concern that occurred during the general election on Nov. 7, 2017.
Among them, two involved sheriff’s deputies.
One occurred at Upper Darby 7-5 at Christ Lutheran Church. According to the letter, a county sheriff’s deputy entered the polling place, failed to identify herself with any information other than her name, demanded access to the poll books, tried to photograph the poll books, demanded that Democratic poll watchers show her their poll watchers’ certificates and when confronted as to her identity, raised her sweater to reveal her gun and sheriff’s badge and said, in an aggressive manner, “This is my identification.”
In the second, in Haverford 8-2, some plainclothes county sheriff’s deputies, with their badges prominently displayed, were handing out Republican literature near the entrance to the polling place and not adhering to the 100 feet distance from polling places as required by law.
Parks brought these matters to the attention of the Board of Elections in a letter dated Dec. 11, 2017, and followed up with another letter dated May 1, noting there had not yet been a response to the Dec. 11 letter.
Board of Elections solicitor Frank Catania said none was needed.
“That letter was written as a partisan act,” he said. “There’s not a thing we can do to investigate those problems because there’s no specifics. No one’s named. There’s not one specific fact for us to be able to follow up on. It’s a script for a YouTube video, that’s all it is.
“It is not giving us information to solve a problem,” Catania said. “It’s a political act. It’s a political commercial.”
He then addressed the Upper Darby 7-5 incident.
Catania explained that sheriff’s deputies assist the Board of Elections on Election Day, particularly in situations where there are problems or heightened emotions.
“(Deputies are) typically sent by me to go to the Judge of Elections to hand them their cell phone to talk to me directly,” he said.
In this case, his office had been receiving complaints all day about the poll watcher telling the Judge of Elections what to do.
After the deputy was sent out to the site, the judge refused to talk to Catania, he said.
“In the meantime, we get a call from Democratic headquarters that the judge called us to complain that there’s a deputy sheriff there,” he said, adding he questioned why the judge didn’t call him. “Finally, I get to talk to the Judge of Elections and she says she went to class and said she was to call the Democrats. The problem was she didn’t call us. She was instructed to call Democratic headquarters and she did. Apparently, Mr. Parks is aware of separate classes being run for judges and inspectors by the Democratic Party.”
In fact, he said there was one such session at the Haverford Township Public Library Saturday.
“Any time (Judges of Election are) getting pulled in a partisan fashion, that’s a problem, that’s a real problem,” Catania said. “We are asking that the partisan training be stopped.”
Parks said there is no point in these training sessions that he knew when people were instructed not to call the county.
“I know for a fact that they weren’t told that,” he said.
He said he oversees the Democratic Election Protection Team members, generally attorneys who respond to issues involving election-related problems on Election Day. Both parties have similar legal teams on stand by.
“When I do the training of those lawyers, I specifically instruct those lawyers to have the Judge of Elections contact the Board of Elections on Election Day about a wide variety of issues,” Parks said. “A lot of the problems that we see are not because there’s some gray area in Election Code law. A lot of the problems is because the Judges of Elections don’t understand what the election laws are.”
In fact, he said that’s why he wrote the Dec. 11, 2017 letter to the Board of Elections.
“It was an effort to try to initiate a dialogue to improve the process,” Parks said. “I’m simply saying there’s some other areas that are worthy of your attention.”
In the letter he asks the Board of Elections to write policy to prohibit members of local election boards and constables from engaging
in partisan activities on Election Day.
In addition. Parks questioned the practice of sending sheriff’s deputies to polls to intercede with problems during elections.
“I don’t think it’s legal under the Pennsylvania Election Code,” he said. “Taking sheriff’s deputies and using them as your communications vehicle is a major point of concern.” With regards to the letter being a political ploy for a video, Parks denied that.
“I don’t know what on earth he’s talking about with Larry DeMarco,” Parks said, referring to the YouTube channel created by that Delaware County Democrat. “I have no idea why he’s trying to bring (this) into this.”
Sanders talked about the May 2 memo and said he did it of his own accord, that no one told him to send it.
“It wasn’t worded properly,” he said, adding that he rescinded it within an hour of sending it out. “Hindsight is 20/20 ... It was improperly worded.” He explained his side. “I don’t want the sheriff to have any partisan image or participation that might be seen by the public to be partisan,” Sanders said. “I want to make sure that no deputy put intentionally or otherwise would intimidate anybody at a poll in a uniform. We’re not there for the party, I’m here for the people of Delaware County. I did not mean at any time ... to infringe on anyone’s ability to vote or take part in the election process.
“Deputies, they have a right to vote, to participate in the process, but not in any capacity that looks like it was official unless it was assigned,” he said. “If we get a request, we honor that request.”
Sanders confirmed that a second memo was issued Friday after he consulted with the assistant solicitor assigned to his office but declined to release the memo, citing he wanted to keep it as interdepartmental communications. In discussing the contents of the second memo, Sanders said he did not want to infringe on anyone’s rights and that he only wanted deputies at polling places in uniform if they were assigned there by him on behalf of the county Board of Elections.
“We can’t have our citizens feeling like a uniformed officer is representing one party or the other,” Sanders said.
In addition, Catania said the Board of Elections sent the sheriff a letter dated April 25 asking for four workers for Election Day assistance as well as help delivering election supplies to various precincts. As of Thursday, he said they had not received a response from Sanders.
“We just want him to answer our letter,” Catania said. “We’ll get other help if they don’t want to do it.”
Sanders said in a telephone interview he was going to provide the assistance the Board of Elections requested.
“And we will do that,” Sanders said. “Yes, we will assist them, that’s routine. That’s all proper.”
Also, Sanders said he plans to petition county council for a pay raise for his deputies.
“They’re grossly underpaid,” he said, adding that his office has become known as a pit stop to local police departments, who pay more than the $13-anhour he said his deputies receive on average. “It’s shameful.”
He said any response to domestic process calls can be dangerous, such as protection from abuse situations or evictions.
“The risk of life is still there,” he said for his employees. “That regard and acknowledgement of the dangers is not reflected in the salary.”